It was the wrong day to start Garrett Whitlock.
The Red Sox put out a lineup that had five guys who were batting less than .200. They were resting Xander Bogaerts and without the injured J.D. Martinez. And they were up against Alek Manoah, Toronto’s overpowering right-hander who is one of the few who can challenge Whitlock as one of the best pitchers since the start of the 2021 season.
It ended up being a waste.
Whitlock pitched three innings and allowed just one unearned run, but the Sox’ offense did nothing against Manoah and went quietly in a 1-0 loss at the Rogers Centre.
It completed another series loss for a Red Sox team that has no momentum and no clear identity. They’ve lost three straight series against the Jays, Rays and Jays again. They’re 3-7 in those 10 games and they’ve fallen to 8-12 on the year. They’re 5 1/2 games back in the American League East before the calendar has flipped to May.
The takeaways:
1. The offense is dead.
Without Bogaerts and Martinez in the lineup, the already-quiet Sox offense looked lifeless.
Once again, there were quick outs and wasted at-bats up and down the lineup. Trevor Story is still searching at the plate, but the Sox have kept him at leadoff, where he was 0-for-3 on Thursday and is now hitting .207 over seven games in that spot.
Kiké Hernandez was hitting cleanup, but was 1-for-4 to see his average dip to .197.
Christian Arroyo dropped to .194, Jackie Bradley Jr. to .161, Bobby Dalbec to .154, Christian Vazquez to .209 and Travis Shaw, who was in the lineup as the designated hitter, is hitless in 20 at-bats this season.
2. Whitlock was solid but imperfect.
He didn’t get any help from his defense.
Arroyo made a bad error at shortstop on a routine grounder that bounced out of his glove. And he failed to turn a double play on a ball hit to Story, who flipped it to Arroyo behind the bag. Arroyo was already on the bag instead of anticipating the throw behind it, and he had to spin around to make a throw from an awkward position.
The Jays didn’t hit Whitlock hard, but the mistakes added up and Whitlock got no help from homeplate umpire Larry Vanover, who missed several obvious calls throughout the day.
Whitlock finished with a career-high 61 pitches despite throwing just three innings. He allowed one unearned run on four hits and two walks while striking out two.
3. Manoah is filthy.
The Jays’ young star held the Sox scoreless over seven innings and held them to just three hits and a walk while striking out seven.
Over three career starts against the Sox, the 24-year-old right-hander has allowed just three runs over 18 innings.
