After losing 16 of 19 games to the Toronto Blue Jays last year, the Red Sox have turned the tables on their division rivals in an unbelievable way this season.
When the Blue Jays came to Fenway in May, the Red Sox greeted them with a four-game sweep. On Sunday in Toronto, the Boston baseball team capped off their visit to the Great White North by winning 5-4 to sweep them again.
Unfortunately, the series finale and all its goodness were overshadowed by the game’s inauspicious beginnings.
Garrett Whitlock’s 10th start of the season began well enough. His sinker velocity was consistent, and other than a solo home run to Brandon Belt, the affable righty’s first inning was quick and quiet.
But he didn’t return for the second. His day ended after one frame with what the Red Sox called “right elbow tightness.” Suddenly, the pitching staff had to cobble together a bullpen game.
Brennan Bernardino took over for Whitlock, and Kaleb Ort and Nick Pivetta followed. The Blue Jays never collected more than two hits and one run against any of them, though Ort was charged with a blown save for allowing the Blue Jays to take a 3-2 lead during his 2/3 innings of work in the bottom of the third.
Pivetta was the only Red Sox pitcher on the mound for two or more innings, but as a former starter, four frames is a fairly easy day at the office. He held the Blue Jays to two hits and one earned run, a solo homer, walked two, and struck out six before turning the game over to Chris Martin, who pitched a perfect eighth.
Alex Cora was full of praise for his pitching staff.
“Berny (Bernardino) was outstanding again,” Cora raved to reporters, and praised Pivetta for “attacking.”
What’s to be said about Martin that hasn’t already been said? The veteran righty owns a 1.73 ERA on the season and has been the ace of the bullpen since coming off the injured list on April 30. He’s only allowed five earned runs all season (none since June 6), and hasn’t issued a walk to any of his last 67 batters faced.
As the bullpen took care of business, Jarren Duran put together a historic day. The centerfielder’s fourth double of the game matched the MLB single-game record, something no Red Sox hitter had done since Rafael Devers in August 2019.
Duran also scored three times, making him the first Red Sox player with four doubles and at least three runs scored in a single 9-inning game since Rick Miller on May 11, 1981. Coincidentally, his big day was also against the Blue Jays in Toronto.
To call this season a renaissance for the young outfielder would be an understatement. Duran debuted in July 2021 and hit .219 with a .622 OPS over 91 games between his first two years in the majors. Struggling both offensively and defensively, he shuttled back and forth between Triple-A Worcester, and wasn’t selected to the big-league team’s Opening Day roster this year.
Duran entered Sunday with the fifth-most doubles in the majors, an achievement made all the more impressive by the fact that he began the year in Triple-A and didn’t play his first major league game of the season until April 17. By game’s end, he was one double away from tying Alex Verdugo for the team lead (26). Instead, he singled for his fifth hit, but going 5-for-5 still set a new career high.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox didn’t have nearly enough to show for Duran’s efforts. It was a 4-4- game through the end of the top of the eighth, in large part because the visiting team continues to struggle with runners on; entering the ninth, they were 3-for-14 with runners in scoring position, with 10 men stranded, including leaving the bases loaded for the second game in a row. The bottom four hitters in the lineup (Triston Casas, Kiké Hernández, David Hamilton, Connor Wong) were 0-for-17 in the contest.
Verdugo was 0-for-4 when he stepped up to bat to lead off the top of the ninth. All of a sudden, it wasn’t a tie game anymore; he sent the first pitch he saw soaring into the stands for a go-ahead home run. No better time for the outfielder to collect his first homer since May 1, and the 50th of his career.
How did it feel to hit his first home run in over two months?
“Very aware,” he told NESN’s Jahmai Webster, with a laugh.
Rafael Devers reached base for the fifth time, then stole his first base of the season, but it was naught, as Hernández ground out to make his an 0-for-5 day. He alone was responsible for five of the 11 men Boston left on base in the game.
Once again, the Red Sox and Blue Jays took a too-close-for-comfort game into the bottom of the ninth. And because Kenley Jansen had converted his first four-out save in over a year on Saturday, Boston didn’t have its veteran closer available, either. He was, however, named to his fourth All-Star Game about an hour later.
Instead, Joe Jacques entered a ninth inning for the first time in his career, looking for his first major league save. Less than a month after his MLB debut, the 28-year-old lefty got the Blue Jays 1-2-3 to bring the weekend to a triumphant end.
“It was fun, it was a great team win,” the Red Sox manager said with a smile.
Whitlock will get an MRI on Monday. The pitcher told reporters that his elbow had been stiff before Sunday, but felt different from the nerve issue that landed him on the injured list earlier in the season.
“To sweep them at their home is big for us,” Verdugo said, adding that their play in Toronto felt like a big momentum boost. “We just gotta keep working.”
They have their work cut out for them this week, when they return to home to host an intimidating opponent.
All-Star Nathan Eovaldi and the Texas Rangers arrive on Tuesday for three games. They’re leading the American League West, and along with the Tampa Bay Rays, are the only two AL teams with 50 or more wins.
The upcoming series would be an uphill battle for a healthier team. For a Red Sox team without Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Corey Kluber, and now Whitlock, it’s David versus a team of Goliaths.
