BOSTON, Mass. – The Blue Jays picked up just their second series victory of the season with a one-sided win over the Red Sox, sending Boston to its eighth loss in their last ten games.
As the Blue Jays head home to enjoy two days off in their next four — with a two-game series against the defending World Series champs in-between — here are three things that stood out to me about the rubber-match win:
THE BIG BAT OF BONI
Emilio Bonifacio has gotten off to a terrible start this season, hitting .157/.193/.265 with 27 strikeouts in only 83 at-bats coming into Sunday’s game, so it was a bit of a surprise that John Gibbons had him in the starting line-up for a second straight day – especially after his 0-for-4 Saturday that included two whiffs and a double play ball, a game that dug even deeper the trough he was in to 3-for-39.
Gibbons, though, figures that the only way to get a guy going is to keep running him out there, and Bonifacio responded by hitting a two-out double in his first at-bat, setting the stage for Munenori Kawasaki’s two-run single, going deep his second time up and tossing in a single (and stealing third) in his next trip. A triple shy of the cycle, Bonifacio popped up against Craig Breslow in his final at-bat, but the three-hit day bumped his batting average up almost 30 points to .184 and finally gave us a glimpse of the exciting, young player we thought the Blue Jays were getting as the final piece to the big off-season trade with Miami.
JENKINS DOES THE JOB
Chad Jenkins was the latest emergency airlift starting pitcher for the Blue Jays this season, with Brandon Morrow’s back acting up on him. The call to Jenkins was completely unexpected, what with him having made only one minor-league start this season after straining a lat muscle in the spring and throwing only 75 pitches in that game.
Surprise or otherwise, Jenkins was sensational through five innings in picking up just his second major-league win. He threw strikes, got quick resolutions to at-bats, walked only one and got ground balls when he needed them. Jenkins gave up a two-out double in each of the first two innings, but followed them both up by inducing a grounder to shortstop each time. In the third, the Red Sox had two on and one out, and Jenkins got another grounder to short, one that was turned into an inning-ending double play.
Jenkins needed just 80 pitches to get through five innings — an average of 16 pitches per inning, which is terrific, especially against this Boston team. He went back out for the sixth, unexpectedly, given the pitch count and the fact that the Blue Jays had extended their lead to 10-1, and gave up a couple of hits before handing things over to the bullpen.
With the Blue Jays desperate for a fourth starter right now, never mind a fifth, Jenkins seems to have moved ahead of Ramon Ortiz in the race for next Saturday’s start in The Bronx.
BIG BOTTOM
John Gibbons shook up his line-up before Saturday’s game, moving Melky Cabrera, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion up to the top three spots, but it was the bottom of the line-up that ruled the day in the Blue Jays’ easy Sunday win.
Bonifacio’s big day had a lot to do with it, but it was Kawasaki’s two-out two-run single that opened the scoring, and Emilio’s home run came with a Colby Rasmus walk aboard.
In all, the 7-8-9 hitters in the Blue Jays’ line-up combined to go 4-for-10 with two walks, five runs scored, four RBIs and a pair of stolen bases, and that’s one heck of a day’s work.