BOSTON — Nothing to see here: just another extremely normal one between the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Twenty-two hits, 13 runs, nine pitchers, five homers, two replay reviews, and an implausible error. A three-run Red Sox lead built brick-by-brick over the first four innings, only for the Blue Jays to topple it with a bat-around fifth to go up by three themselves. A Red Sox comeback to tie it in the fifth and sixth, before a game-winning solo shot by a part-time catcher off one of Toronto’s best relievers in the eighth.
Ultimately, it was a third-straight Blue Jays loss, 7-6, on a classic Fenway night.
“This is a good environment to play in. I think our guys like it. It’s a tough environment to play in. But it seems like no lead is safe. And you’ve got to really value 27 outs,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “And they’re a good-hitting team. They’ve been doing that for the majority of the year. And I think when you make mistakes, you pay the price. So, you tip your cap.”
Where to begin? Might as well parse Yusei Kikuchi’s night, as the left-hander struggled to carry forward the momentum he’d sustained through his last three outings in which he allowed only two runs over 17.2 innings. He allowed five over 4.1 Tuesday. In a double rarity for Kikuchi, he didn’t walk a batter while striking out only two.
“Pitches in the middle zone,” Schneider said. “He had really good stuff. But his slider, it was weird, it was almost a little bit too hard. In the third inning there it got into the 85-87 range and had a little bit of separation from his fastball. I think it was just that early — he was in the middle of the zone.”
With his off-speed stuff not working the way he wanted it to, Kikuchi leaned heavily on his fastball, which the Red Sox were quick to catch on to. He gave up plenty of hard contact — and five of his nine hits — off heaters that were too often left up and over the plate. Alex Verdugo doubled twice off Kikuchi, while Christian Arroyo and Masataka Yoshida both left the yard.
“Breaking balls weren’t working as effectively today, so, I had to throw the fastball. And I feel like the Boston Red Sox were able to zero in on that fastball,” Kikuchi said. “With the changeup, they were fouling it off. And I tried to nibble a little bit too much. So, I feel like that was the downside today.”
Still, Kikuchi kept the game in check until the fifth, when the Blue Jays strung together a series of hits off Red Sox starter Tanner Houck, including a 406-foot Daulton Varsho homer to right-centre.
The Blue Jays were seeing Houck’s sinker well all night, putting it in play 10 times at an average exit velocity of 95.7-m.p.h. That’s the pitch Varsho drove 334-feet into the opposite field alley for a double an inning prior to his homer. In the span of those two plate appearances, Varsho, who entered the night in a 9-for-74 funk, equalled the amount of extra-base hits he had in his last 21 games.
“He eliminated a little bit of his toe tap. A little bit more of a traditional gather. That kind of freed him up a little bit in terms of being able to use his athleticism and swing,” Schneider said. “And he swung at the right pitches, as well.”
But that was the last time the Blue Jays would even threaten, as the Red Sox faced only one over the minimum from the sixth through the ninth. Toronto’s best opportunities to score came much earlier than that, as Houck struggled to land his slider over the first three innings. But after the bat-around fifth, Boston pitching held Toronto’s offence to only two singles over the final four frames.
“It was a weird night. I thought we were swinging at the right pitches, trying to get [Houck] up in the zone with that sinker,” Schneider said. “We just missed a couple.”
Meanwhile, the Red Sox chipped away at Toronto’s lead — or, more accurately, Connor Wong did. He tied the game taking an 0-1 Zach Pop sinker 368-feet to the top of the Green Monster in the sixth, then won it by lobbing a 2-1 Erik Swanson fastball over the Monster in the eighth.
Swanson had been one of the club’s most dependable relievers, pitching to a 1.32 ERA over 13.2 innings entering the night. But he fell behind, 2-1, left a fastball up, and watched Wong launch it 353-feet to left. It would’ve been a homer at Fenway, Minute Maid Park, and nowhere else.
But while Wong was no doubt helped by one of MLB’s most unique environments, both pitches he hit out could have been located better by the Blue Jays relievers.
“It just comes down to execution,” Schneider said. “No matter who you’re playing, no matter when it is, you’ve got to execute. And tonight we just didn’t do that.”
And there was plenty of other Fenway fun along the way. Kevin Kiermaier made a preposterous, cross-body throw on the run in front of the Monster in the third, nabbing Rob Refsnyder at second on what should have been a double. Think Patrick Mahomes scrambling to the sideline before hitting Travis Kelce in flight at the far hashmark 30 yards downfield.
In the fifth, after Kikuchi allowed three of four batters to reach, Pop entered and got an Enrique Hernandez comebacker that could’ve started an inning-ending double play. But the Blue Jays reliever opted instead to flip the ball to first for only one out. A batter later, the Red Sox plated a run with a groundball single.
“Yeah, he could have [attempted the double play.] In real time, we thought so,” Schneider said. “The game can speed up — especially here sometimes. And I think if he had to do it again, he probably would have at least taken a look at second.”
A less costly miscue came in the sixth, as George Springer overran a routine fly ball that could have ended an inning but resulted in the batter reaching on an error. As the ball bounced out of play, Springer gave his teammates a baffled look and a loud, “Wow!” before Yimi Garcia stranded the runner with a strikeout.
“That’s just a weird play. Georgie’s been there, done that. You don’t see that very often from him,” Schneider said. “It started way foul and really came back. So, you kind of chalk it up to one of those things.”
One of those things on one of those nights at Fenway.
