Breaking News: For The First Time In 2012, The Red Sox Are Ahead Of Someone In The AL East

After 53 games (nearly a third of the 2012 regular season), the Boston Red Sox decided they had enough of the dingy American League East basement.

They finally did something about it by beating the Toronto Blue Jays (27-26, 15-12 home) 7-4 this afternoon at Rogers Centre. The win clinched the series for the Red Sox (28-25, 15-11 away) while also sending Toronto into last-place.

Felix Doubront (6-2) continued to earn his surprising moniker as best Boston starting pitcher this season with another solid outing. He tied a season-high with 6.1 innings, he allowed three runs (two earned) on seven hits with seven strikeouts and a walk. Like Clay Buchholz on Friday night, both of Doubront's runs came on solo homers. Needless to say, for whatever reason the ball flies out of the Rogers Centre even when the roof is closed.

File this away since it will likely never happen again this season but Nick Punto was the catalyst of Boston's offense. He went 3 for 4 with two runs and two RBIs while also falling a triple short of a cycle.

Alfredo Aceves wrapped up the win with a 1-2-3 ninth (including a strikeout) for his 14th save of the season.

Blue Jays starter Kyle Drabek (4-6) had another underachieving start for a guy of his talents. He went 6.2 innings but allowed five runs (four earned) on six hits with four strikeouts and four walks.

Boston put up four runs in the second inning thanks to some timely hitting and terrible defense by Toronto. Will Middlebrooks (RBI single), Punto (RBI double) and Daniel Nava (two-run single) all had two-out RBIs. Nava's "hit" deserves an asterisk though since it was an easy catch that Blue Jays center fielder Colby Rasmus failed to make. It's a joke that the Blue Jays scorekeeper didn't credit him with an error, maybe his overbearing dad is in charge of that thankless task.

Backup catcher Jeff Mathis (3rd of the season) had a solo shot in the third to get Toronto within 3-1. Even though Middlebrooks grounded into a double play, a run scored in the fourth. The Blue Jays showed some life as Kelly Johnson (2 hits) had an RBI single in the fourth and Jose Bautista (13th of the season) went deep in the fifth, with nobody on base.

David Ortiz scored on Ryan Sweeney's ground out in the eighth and Brett Lawrie answered with an RBI single. Punto added the insurance run in the ninth with his first homer as a Red Sox. Proving that anything in life is possible, light-hitting Punto crushed it 444 feet to right.

Daniel Bard (5-5) faces rookie Drew Hutchison (4-2) tomorrow afternoon (1:07 p.m., NESN) as the Red Sox go for the sweep in Toronto.

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Red Sox & Bard Flop In His First MLB Start

I'll concede that I didn't watch every pitch-since the Celtics-Heat game was way more entertaining-but from what I saw, Daniel Bard's first MLB start was nothing special.

Toronto (3-2) bounced back from a loss last night at Rogers Centre to pick up a 7-3 win over the Red Sox (1-4) this evening. It wasn't even that close either since Boston tacked on two meaningless runs in the ninth when it was 7-1.

Bard (0-1) went 5+ innings, allowing five runs (all earned) on eight hits with a walk and six strikeouts. Most of the suckup Red Sox beat reporters were raving about his pitches on Twitter during the game but it's the regular season, not March. I want results.

Blue Jays starter Kyle Drabek (1-0) was better and he earned the win. He went 5.1 innings, allowing one run (earned) on three hits with four strikeouts and three walks.

The best thing you can say about Bard's outing was that he wasn't hit hard, rather Toronto found a bunch of holes with well-placed hits that lacked much pop.

Edwin Encarnacion's infield single that plated Yunel Escobar (2 runs, 2 hits) gave Toronto a 1-0 lead in the first. The Blue Jays added two more runs in the third on Adam Lind's (2 hits) RBI single and Brett Lawrie's (2 hits) RBI single.

Besides the better pitching, the difference in the game was runners in scoring position: Boston was 2 for 12 while Toronto was 5 for 10 in that position.

Adrian Gonzalez finally got the Red Sox on the board with a sacrifice fly in the sixth that scored Jacoby Ellsbury (2 runs, 2 walks).

The Blue Jays put it away with three more runs in the sixth, on J.P. Arencebia's two-run single and a sacrifice fly by Colby Rasmus. Encarnacion greeted reliever Michael Bowden-who still sucks-with a solo homer in the seventh.

Boston has already proven in this very small sample size (five games) that their lineup never gives up, the opposite of last September. Gonzalez drove in Nick Punto and Ellsbury with an RBI double in the ninth. Dustin Pedroia (3 hits) and Gonzalez were stranded on base as David Ortiz struck out looking to end it.

Don't look now but the Red Sox would do themselves a big favor by taking the series finale tomorrow afternoon. Nevermind that they typically own Ricky Romero (4-6 in 13 career starts, 7.12 ERA, .328 OBA) but they simply cannot return to Boston 1-5 this weekend with Josh Beckett starting the home opener and four games against the Rays. That would be a recipe for disaster.

It's up to Jon Lester to pitch another gem, for a tired bullpen, and for the lineup to help him more than it did on Opening Day against Detroit.

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