Red Sox can’t help but be impressed by Donaldson’s big night

Josh Donaldson hammered the Red Sox with two home runs and five RBIs as the Toronto Blue Jays beat Boston 7-5.

The numbers from the Toronto Blue Jays magical 2015 make it pretty clear that the core of this team hit better with the Rogers Centre roof open as opposed to closed and, yeah, that could be one of those “lies, damned lies and statistics” thing.

Jose Bautista hit .160 with five home runs in 110 plate appearances in those games, compared to .250 on the season. Russell Martin, who had a .240 average, came in at .213 with the roof closed. Edwin Encarnacion at .209 was 68 points off his season average and had five homers while Kevin Pillar at .230, was 48 points off. It should be pointed out, of course, that the roof is closed during cold weather, which means early in the season as well as the playoffs. It was open during the summer when the days – and the Jays – heated up.

As for the 2015 most valuable player? Well, this figures, doesn’t it: Josh Donaldson had nine homers and hit .336 indoors at the Rogers Centre. Indoors, outdoors … hell, the moon … it didn’t matter much where he played last season. So, that’s why the fact that Donaldson’s first two-homer game of the season came Friday night with the roof open for the first time this season ought not to necessarily be viewed in the context of the shackles coming off – although it would make for a nice, tidy narrative.

No, we’d rather ask one of the Boston Red Sox about Donaldson’s performance, on a night when he drove in five of the Blue Jays’ seven runs. Home run No. 1 (his 12th of the year) came in the first inning on a 1-0 94 mph fastball from Joe Kelly; No. 13 came on an 86 mph 2-2 pitch from Koji Uehara in the eighth. Donaldson pulled a moon shot foul off Uehara before curling a homer down the right-field line, inside the foul pole.

Red Sox’s shortstop Xander Bogearts was impressed.

“He obviously had a good day against Joe Kelly, then Koji comes in – that’s 10 miles an hour difference – and he hits another one out,” said Bogaerts, who extended his hitting streak to 20 games with a fourth-inning single.

“M.V.P.,” David Ortiz had chimed in earlier as he prepared to leave the clubhouse.

The loss was just the Red Sox’s sixth in 31 games when they’ve scored at least five runs, and it came on a day in which the team made a significant move with its rotation, sending star-crossed Clay Buchholz to the bullpen with an eye toward bringing up prospect Eduardo Rodriguez on Tuesday. It is a further sign, clearly, that new president and general manager David Dombrowski doesn’t feel beholden to some of the tight-rope walking done by his predecessor.

Kelly, the Red Sox’s starter, can be a difference maker in the American League East. This Red Sox’s lineup has supplanted the Blue Jays as the most feared in the division if not in most of baseball, and Kelly was making his second start after coming off the 15-day disabled list with a shoulder impingement. His first game was a one-hitter over 6 2/3 innings against the Cleveland Indians. But the Blue Jays – Donaldson in particular – have always been a handful and the Blue Jays third baseman also turned in a pitch-saving grab on a sinking line drive to start an inning-ending double play in the fourth.

“I thought he (Kelly) had quality stuff tonight,” said Red Sox’s manager. “That wasn’t the story. The story was Donaldson. He hooks a splitter into the fifth deck (the foul off Uehara) and then when they try to get him to chase he hits one around the foul pole.” Asked how a team can get Donaldson up on one of those nights, Farrell smiled and said: “If first base is open? Four wide ones.”

Kelly agreed with his manager’s assessment, although he was more upset with his pitch location than the choice of pitch. Kelly was going to live and die with his fastball – “make the same pitch better,” he said.

“Those guys at the top of the order … there were just too many missed pitches to them,” Kelly said, referring to lead-off hitter Ezequiel Carrera – who reached base three times and scored twice while subbing in for the suspended Jose Bautista – in addition to No. 2 hitter Donaldson.

Blue Jays manager John Gibbons elected to stick with the re-jigged lineup run out a week ago against the Minnesota Twins – even with Bautista forced out of the lead-off he’d manned while the team went 5-2 on its seven-game road trip. The result? The Blue Jays are back at .500 and Donaldson is very much where he belongs: under the open skies, hitting home runs. “He was in the middle of it all night,” Farrell said, summing up. Just where the Blue Jays expect to see him, on a night when they regained the city’s sports stage all to themselves.

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