Johnson stumbles again as Jays fall below .500

BOSTON — For one shining start on June 17, Josh Johnson looked like the pitcher Alex Anthopoulos had in mind when he started talking trade with the Marlins last winter.

In that game, Johnson pitched shutout ball over 7-1/3 innings against the Colorado Rockies. He had recently come off the disabled list and the start raised the team’s hopes that he would finally fulfil the hopes of Blue Jays fans.

But for most of the season, Johnson’s performance has been mediocre. It was downright awful Friday night in Fenway Park when he put the Jays in an early 5-0 hole that led to a 7-5 loss to the Red Sox.

The defeat dropped the Jays below .500 at 39-40. They are 1-4 on the current road trip and fell to 8-1/2 games behind the first-place Red Sox with two games left in the four-game series.

Toronto erased the five-run deficit, tying the score on Edwin Encarnacion’s 23rd homer in the seventh inning. But the Jays’ relievers, so solid in recent weeks, experienced an untimely off-night, allowing two runs in the bottom of the inning, largely because they had trouble finding the plate.

One night earlier, Boston knocked out starter ChienMing Wang in the second inning with a seven-run outburst. During the first two games of the series, Gibbons used seven of his eight relievers. Only Dustin McGowan was idle.

After Neil Wagner gave up singles to the first two batters in the seventh, Brett Cecil came in and struck out David Ortiz. Then Cecil walked Mike Napoli on a 3-1 pitch and gave up an RBI single to Jonny Gomes on another 3-1 pitch.

Gibbons summoned Darren Oliver, who walked Jarrod Saltalamacchia (yes, another 3-1 pitch) to force in a run.

Johnson allowed five runs on eight hits and walked two, throwing 90 pitches. He sailed through the first, gave up two in the second, one in the third and two more in the fourth.