Blue Jays’ bats quiet in bid for series sweep

On a night honouring the Blue Jays’ greatest offensive moments, the bats weren’t able to rise to the occasion, losing 5-3 to the Red Sox.

The Blue Jays and Red Sox met for the final game of their series Sunday afternoon in a match up of 2012 Cy Young winners R.A. Dickey, and former Blue Jay David Price. Both starters came into the game having been pretty inconsistent thus far in 2016, but both performed reasonably well on Sunday.

The first portion of the game was a pitcher’s duel from the former award winners. Both Dickey and Price escaped some minor jams and looked to be in total control in the early going.

In the top of the fourth, Dickey took a line shot off the left foot from Travis Shaw, but walked off the field showing no ill effects. Devon Travis continued to look good in the batter’s box, battling Price for a single in the 4th in a strong at bat.

The Jays finally got something going in the bottom half of the 5th after a leadoff single from Ezequiel Carrera. After Josh Thole failed to move him over on a couple of attempted bunts, the backup catcher struck out looking for the first out. Jose Bautista then took the first pitch from David Price off the foul pole in left field for his 6th career home run against his former teammate, and the 297th of his career.

The Red Sox retaliated in the 6th when Mookie Betts hit a one out triple to the right centre gap to break up the no-hit bid from Dickey. The three-bagger was the 24th extra base hit on the season for the third year outfielder. Betts scored on a single to left field by Dustin Pedroia, which extended his streak of 23 straight games with a hit against the Jays.

After an extended battle between Dickey and Xander Bogaerts, the shortstop extended his hit streak to 22 games with a grounder in the nearly the same spot Pedroia went minutes before. Dickey then walked Shaw, and hit Hanley Ramirez with the bases loaded to tie the game before giving way to Chad Girodo. The rookie lefty came in to face one better in Jackie Bradley Jr, and walked him as well to make it 3-2. Jesse Chavez was greeted with a bases loaded jam with one out, but escaped with a strikeout and a fly ball to minimize the damage.

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Carrera had a fantastic day against Price in the lefty on lefty match-up, going three for three including a leadoff single in the 7th. Thole redeemed himself in his second bunt opportunity to move Carrera to second, but the Jays were unable to bring him in from scoring position with one out.

Edwin Encarnacion tied the game in the bottom of the 8th on a leadoff solo shot off of Heath Hembree, his 10th of the season. Encarnacion, Bautista and Jimmy Paredes used things like pink bats, gloves and t-shirts to honour their Mother, on Dominican Mother’s Day.

The Red Sox finally took the lead on a RBI, ground-rule double from Pedroia in the 11th, and a fielder’s choice from Bogaerts to make it 5-3, both runs charged to Gavin Floyd. Koji Uehara pitched the 11th to pick up the save.

Additional game notes:

• The pre-game ceremony honouring the big hitting moments of the last 40 seasons included:
  • Roberto Alomar, Tony Fernandez, Jose Cruz Jr, Ernie Whitt, Shawn Green, Vernon Wells, Carlos Delgado, John Mayberry, Jesse Barfield, and Lloyd Moseby.
• Jose Bautista has collected a hit in every game that he has led off for the Blue Jays. His home run in the 5th also extended his hitting streak to 9 games. He also played first base for the first time since August of 2014.
• Clay Buchholz pitched in the bullpen for the first time since being removed from the rotation, ironically picking up the win.
• It was Triple Bobble Head day, featuring Bautista, Wells and Delgado. It was given to fans when they came to the game today.
• The game was one of three featured games to honour the 40 year history of the Blue Jays. Today’s game honoured the great hitting moments in Blue Jays’ history.