BOSTON – Let’s borrow from Ron Burgundy in “Anchorman” on this one: “Boy that escalated quickly, I mean, that really got out of hand.”
Things certainly did for the Toronto Blue Jays in a 10-4 drubbing from the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night, a defeat that ended a run of five straight series wins, and while nobody needs to lay low for a while after killing a guy with a trident, there’s definitely plenty of carnage to pick through.
The only bright spot is that it didn’t cost them in the standings, as the Baltimore Orioles did them a solid by beating the New York Yankees 5-3 to ensure they’ll carry a 1.5-game lead into a pivotal four-game set that opens Thursday in the Bronx.
But they’ll head to the Big Apple wiping away the gore from this mess, having allowed 10-plus runs twice in a series for the first time since April 22-24, 2014 against Baltimore.
“We’re fine,” manager John Gibbons said of his team’s frame of mind. “These guys [Red Sox] are playing great baseball, they just took it to us in two out of these three games here. But it starts on the mound, the two games we lost here we were down early big, that’s the way it goes.”
Front and centre in that regard is Drew Hutchison, who allowed six runs in only 3.1 innings in his first road start since July 25, driving his earned-run average away from the Rogers Centre up to 9.44 in 12 outings (54.1 innings, 57 earned runs), but actually lowering his ERA at Fenway Park from 19.89 to 18.62 in three starts.
Incredibly, the Blue Jays recovered to win the previous two outings. This time, not so much.
“I’ve obviously pitched bad here this year,” said Hutchison. “I’m not sure about the past. But it is what it is. It just comes down to making pitches. I didn’t do that in the third inning. I made pitches earlier in the game and had success even though I had some deep counts. It’s unacceptable at this point in the season.”
What to do with Hutchison, scheduled to next pitch Sept. 17 at Atlanta, is an interesting question, given that he came undone in his last outing at home against Baltimore in the span of eight pitches in the sixth inning, giving up six runs in five frames, and inexplicably pitches like a different guy on the road.
There’s already uncertainty in the rotation with Marcus Stroman slated to make his season debut Saturday against the Yankees and Mark Buehrle due to pitch the opener in Atlanta on seven days of rest after a cortisone shot in his shoulder.
But Hutchison did little to inspire confidence in this one.
“For me, what’s done is done,” he said. “All I can do is when I’m given the ball go out there and perform. I’m confident in myself and I’m confident going forward as I’ve always been. Whenever I get the ball I’m confident in going out there and getting the job done and giving us a great chance to win.”
Hutchison needed 20 pitches in each of the first two innings to get through seven batters before opening the third with an eight-pitch walk to Ryan Hanigan after going up 0-2 in the count.
He recovered to induce a double-play grounder from Jackie Bradley Jr., but the Red Sox weren’t getting fooled against him the second time through, Mookie Betts hitting a solo shot off the top of the Monster in left-centre, Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts both lining solid singles before David Ortiz launched a 2-0 fastball over the wall in centre for career homer No. 498.
Hutchison came back out for the fourth and after a weak grounder by Pablo Sandoval, surrendered consecutive doubles to Rusney Castillo and Hanigan before his outing came to a merciful end. He regularly got ahead of hitters, but without his put-away slider, Red Sox hitters often fouled off pitches until they got a mistake.
“They’re good hitters over there, too,” said Hutchison. “I maybe wasn’t as sharp as I’d like to have been with my secondary stuff, but I was able to make pitches to get outs. The second time through, in the third inning, I was ahead, and the single to Pedroia wasn’t a terrible pitch. Next time maybe a little lower and he fought it off and [Bogaerts’] first pitch single going the other way, when you’re going down and away, that’s a pretty good pitch and he takes it the other way. And then I got into a bad count on Ortiz, and was going in, and left it over the middle.
“So it’s just things like that where you need to bear down and make a pitch.”
Liam Hendriks gave up a double to Betts to cash in Hanigan for a 6-1 lead, and the Red Sox tacked on four more against Steve Delabar in a messy fifth. Jeff Francis, the only effective Blue Jays pitcher in this one, escaped that frame and delivered two more clean innings, but by then all that remained was for the Blue Jays to root for an Orioles win.
Adding to the misery was that they couldn’t break through against Joe Kelly, who seemed to be waging a personal war against Major League Baseball’s attempts to speed up games.
Edwin Encarnacion ripped an RBI single off him in the fourth but Russell Martin was caught looking with the bases loaded, while in the fifth, Jose Bautista was also called out on strikes with two on to end the frame. Bautista had made a move to first thinking he’d taken ball four, and Kelly stared him down, which Encarnacion took exception to and made clear to the Red Sox.
Chirping continued as the teams took the field, with Bautista pointing to his eyes, than toward the scoreboard which shows the Blue Jays atop the AL East, and making the No. 1 signal with his finger.
Even though the Red Sox decisively won this round, the point was well made, but the Blue Jays know they’ll have to play much, much better against the Yankees if they plan to stay there.