Semien walk-off HR in 7th, Jays
By Associated Press
TORONTO — Marcus Semien hit a walk-off home run to begin the seventh inning and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the skidding Boston Red Sox 1-0 in the opening game of Saturday’s doubleheader.
Each team managed only two hits, and Semien got the biggest of all. He connected on the first pitch from Matt Barnes (5-3) for his 26th home run of the season and the first game-ending homer of his career.
“It was amazing,” lefthander Robbie Ray said of the celebration that followed Semien’s drive. “Everybody was screaming and yelling. It was a fun little experience.”
Semien’s decisive shot was Toronto’s 166th. The Blue Jays began the day tied with San Francisco for the MLB lead.
The Blue Jays have hit at least one home run in 20 consecutive games, the third-longest such streak in team history. Toronto had 22- and 21-game streaks in 2000.
The Blue Jays improved to 8-1 since returning to Toronto July 30.
“It feels like right now that everything is kind of coming together,” Ray said. “We’re pitching really good, we’re hitting, guys are getting on base, we’re getting them over and getting them in. We’re doing the small things. It’s really fun, especially to be able to do it here in Toronto.”
The Red Sox have lost eight of nine and have scored five runs or fewer in 14 consecutive games. Before this game, they put slugger J.D. Martinez on the COVID-19-related injured list.
“Overall, we haven’t been able to do much,” manager Alex Cora said. “It’s tough to lose 1-0 but the positive is we pitched better.”
The shutout defeat was Boston’s fourth.
Starters Nick Pivetta of
Boston and Ray dominated.
Kiké Hernández walked to lead off the game against Ray, but the Red Sox didn’t get their first hit until Kevin Plawecki’s grounded a one-out single through the left side in the fifth. Christian Vazquez followed by grounding into a double play.
Pivetta was perfect through the first four innings before Corey Dickerson lined a two-out single to left.
The Red Sox used a walk and a hit to put runners at the corners with two outs in the sixth, but Xander Bogaerts fouled out to end the threat.
Ray allowed two hits, both singles, in six scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to 2.90. He walked two and struck out five.
Jordan Romano (5-1) pitched a perfect seventh to earn the win.
The Canadian-born Pivetta gave up one hit, walked one and struck out five in six shutout innings.
For the Yankees it has them heading in the right direction. They now sit two games behind the Red Sox and one back of the A’s in the American League wild-card race.
Aaron Judge crushed a 421-foot bomb off Mariners’ right-hander Chris Flexen in the bottom of the first. The former Mets prospect who went to Korea last year and reinvented himself held the Yankees scoreless for the next four innings before Rougned Odor took advantage of the short porch in right field for a two-run shot.
Odor’s first home run since July 25 pulled the Yankees within a run and chased Flexen.
Gleyber Torres, who was out of the starting lineup just for rest, pinch hit a long fly ball to right field that Mitch Haniger lost in the sun for a three-base error. He scored the tying run on Kyle Higashioka’s pinch-hit, ground-rule double.
It was Higashioka’s first hit in seven chances as a pinch hitter.
LeMahieu singled and then did some of the Yankees’ best baserunning of the year. With Higashioka on third and running on Anthony Rizzo’s contact, LeMahieu kept the attention of the Mariners first baseman and shortstop with a rundown, allowing Higashioka to score before the visitors could get the third out.
“Just a heads-up baseball play by him,” Judge said. “LeMahieu is pretty shifty. He’s pretty shifty. He’s got some agility, he’s pretty quick and he stayed in there long enough for us to get that run and get the win.
“That was big time. Little plays like that kind of go unnoticed at times but make the big difference.”
The Yankees bullpen, which was fantastic Friday night, came through again Saturday.
Clay Holmes, who has quietly been terrific since the Bombers acquired him from the Pirates last month, threw 1 perfect innings. Joely Rodriguez worked around a two-out single to get the ball to Jonathan Loaisiga, who picked up his fourth career save.