The Red Sox (40-27 overall, 20-17 home) and the Blue Jays (33-31 overall, 20-18 away) just concluded one of the strangest four-game series that you will ever see at Fenway Park. To review: Boston walked off Toronto 6-5 on Friday night, the Jays beat them 7-2 on Saturday afternoon then absolutely wiped the floor with the Sox 18-4 on Sunday afternoon. That left tonight's series finale which naturally turned into a pitcher's duel that was ultimately won 2-1 by Red Sox third baseman's Rafael Devers' (2 hits) walk-off single that scored right fielder Alex Verdugo (2 hits). The net result of these bizarre four days was a series split for the Sox who remain three games back of the Rays (43-24)-owners of the best record in MLB. Toronto is in third-place in the AL East but I doubt that they'll ever catch Tampa Bay since they are 8.5 games behind them.
It's no coincidence that Boston's shaky at best starting rotation has completely fallen apart since Major League Baseball has turned its attention to foreign substances (Spider Tack!) used by pitchers all around the sport. The Red Sox pitching was so brutal on Sunday that reliever Ryan Weber allowed 11 earned runs (before he was promptly sent back to Worcester today where he belongs) and manager Alex Cora had to use not one but two position players-Marwin Gonzalez and Christian Arroyo-just to get out of the stupid blowout loss alive. For all of those reasons and more, it was heartening to see Nathan Eovaldi (6.2 IP, 0 ER, 3 hits, 4 Ks, 1 BB) pitch great against one of the best lineups in baseball. Toronto's prized rookie hurler Alek Manoah (6 IP, 1 ER, 4 hits, 5 Ks, 1 BB) nearly matched Eovaldi except for one mistake that he made early in his stellar outing.
Verdugo drove in center fielder Enrique Hernandez with an RBI double in the third inning that gave the home team a 1-0 lead. Cora let Eovaldi try and get out of his own jam which paid off when he induced Jays center fielder Randal Grichuk to ground into a double play. That left DH Vladimir Guerrero Jr on third base and reliever Josh Taylor stranded him there by striking out first baseman Rowdy Tellez to end the top of the seventh. It's hard to believe but after his 1-2-3 eighth inning with two more strikeouts, Taylor has recorded 18 scoreless appearances in a row.
It looked like the Red Sox might escape with a 1-0 victory since their usually lights out closer Matt Barnes (3-1) struck out the first two batters that he faced in the ninth inning. After taking a strike on the first pitch of his at bat, Guerrero crushed a game-tying solo home run (his MLB-best 22nd of the season) over the Green Monster. Sox pitchers will no doubt be seeing Vladdy Jr. in their nightmares for weeks since he hit a home run in every game of this series. Luckily for Boston, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoya keeps trying to make Rafael Dolis (1-3) as the closer against the Red Sox a thing. For the third time (!!) already this season, the guy with a 5.14 ERA cost his team a game as it only took him 11 pitches to cough this one up. Verdugo led off the bottom of the ninth with an infield single, DH J.D. Martinez followed with a single and shortstop Xander Bogaerts flied out to left before Devers rallied from down 0-2 in the count to take a splitter for a ball then he launched a shot to left center that bounced off the scoreboard on the Monster.
This was Boston's last game at Fenway for awhile: they are gone for the next 10 days on a road trip that includes eight games in three different cities. The Red Sox play two in Atlanta (30-33 overall, 17-17 home)-the third-place team in the NL East; three in Kansas City (30-35 overall, 16-16 home)-the third-place team in the AL Central; then three at Tampa Bay next week before finally coming home next weekend to play the mediocre Yankees (33-32 overall, 16-16 away)-the fourth-place team in the AL East. Tomorrow night (7:20, NESN), Eduardo Rodriguez (5-4) faces Braves rookie Tucker Davidson (0-0) and on Wednesday night (7:20, NESN), Garrett Richards (4-4) takes on another Braves youngster Ian Anderson (4-3). It's tough to have any faith in E-Rod or Richards at the moment so Boston will need to beat up on Atlanta's starting pitchers who have both been on a roll lately.
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