Blue Jays lose lacklustre contest to David Price and the Red Sox

Less than 24 hours after walking off the Red Sox in extra innings, the Blue Jays took the field again hoping for a series victory against the first place team from Boston.

Saturday’s ballgame was dull for Blue Jays fans. They appeared to be out of it right from the beginning and failed to muster up any sort of comeback in the late innings. Once again, the Jays failed to win the second game of a crucial series against a division rival.

Former Blue Jay David Price started for the Sox, going 5.1 innings allowing two runs on five hits, striking out six and walking three. He earned his third win of the season, with Red Sox relievers Carson Smith, Hector Velazquez and Joe Kelly earning holds.

Marco Estrada started for the Jays and went 6.0 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and taking the loss, his third of the season. Estrada allowed a two-run homer to Hanley Ramirez in the third, part of a three-run inning for Boston.

Blue Jay relievers Jake Petricka, Aaron Loup and Seung-hwan Oh all pitched scoreless innings in relief, while Ryan Tepera allowed one run on two hits in the ninth, striking out three. The Jays finished up the afternoon with seven hits and one error, while the Sox had 12 hits and one error as well.

The Blue Jays offense (or lack thereof) was provided primarily by Justin Smoak, who hit his fifth home run of the season off Price in the sixth inning. The Jays got their other run on an Anthony Alford RBI single, his first career major league RBI. This contest also saw the debut of the newly acquired Gio Urshela, who went 1-for-2 in his first game with the club. Urshela wore #3, which was last worn by Ezequiel Carrera during the 2017 season.

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Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel struck out two in the ninth to earn his eleventh save of the season. With this loss, the Jays fall to 21-19 while the Red Sox improve to 27-12. The Jays are currently third in the American League East, 6.5 games behind Boston for the division lead and 3.0 games behind the Houston Astros for the wild card.

Overall, the team looked tired and sluggish, not able to string any hits together and unable to push multiple runs across in the same inning. Although he got off to a rocky start, Estrada smoothed things out and gave them decent length.

The pen remained solid and kept them within striking distance, but a plethora of strikeouts and a lack of clutch hitting made it nearly impossible for any rallies to materialize. The top of the order was practically dormant and while they did play a good defensive game, it wasn’t nearly enough to stop the Red Sox offense from putting up five runs.

The rubber match of the series will feature recently recalled Joe Biagini (0-1, 8.10 ERA) facing off against Drew Pomeranz (1-1, 5.23 ERA) on Sunday afternoon.

Next: Blue Jays bullpen getting overworked in a hurry