Jays’ defence takes the night off

Boston’s offence takes full advantage of sloppy effort by AL East rivals in opener

As part of a dreary 13-3 Blue Jays’ loss in Game 1 of what had been labelled the club’s biggest series of the year, facing the Red Sox at the Rogers Centre, Marco Estrada may not have deserved a better fate but, somehow, he deserved better.

Estrada, the Jays’ all-star starter, threw 38 balls among his 77 pitches — which is why he didn’t deserve to win — but he also had little to no help from his defence, an element of the game that this team needs in order to win and that the pitchers became used to in 2015, in order to succeed. Estrada required 77 pitches to record just seven outs and left trailing 4-0.

But it wasn’t just Estrada who suffered from the generally shoddy glove-work behind him. By the fifth inning the sellout crowd was jeering loudly and cheering sarcastically whenever left fielder Melvin Upton Jr. made a routine glove play, one without dropping or mishandling it. Horrible Jays’ defence was contagious. In the first inning, with Dustin Pedroia on first and two out, Mookie Betts sliced a drive to right centre. The ball bounced in front of a racing Michael Saunders and spun past him towards his original position allowing the runner to score.

In the second inning, after a walk and a one-out wild pitch, Pedroia lashed a one-hopper almost directly at Devon Travis, who was shaded up the middle. But Travis had taken one anticipatory step to his left and the ball shot by him into centre field. Kevin Pillar threw home and the ball bounced over catcher Dioner Navarro as Jackie Bradley Jr. scored. Estrada failed to back up the play at home, but a good bounce back to Estrada and he threw Pedroia out at third.

In the third inning, Upton raced into left-centre and reached full-length, but Betts’ liner bounced off the end of his glove for a hit. Then Hanley Ramirez lofted a high fly onto the right field line that Edwin Encarnacion could not catch up with and Saunders had no chance for. With runners on the corners, Travis Shaw flew to short left. Upton positioned himself for the catch and throw, then dropped it. A strong throw might have held Betts at third.

In the fourth, Brock Holt lashed a double down the third base line that bounced off the stands out to left field. Upton wanted to challenge the runner at second, but he reached down with his glove, turned his body and came up without the ball.

That’s when the fans started to give it to him. Immediately after that, a Danny Barnes pitch bounced off Navarro’s glove for a passed ball sending Holt to third from where he scored on a sacrifice fly.

The beat-down just kept on coming for the Jays.

In the seventh inning, with David Ortiz on second base with a double, Betts grounded to Travis who snuck a peak at Ortiz trundling to third. He had made a play like that in Cleveland, but this time when he took his eye off the ball, it clanked off his glove for an error. Hanley then hit a three-run homer.

And in the eighth inning, Navarro collected his second passed ball of the night, which was followed by a walk issued by Ryan Tepera and then a new pitcher, lefty Matt Dermody, who joined in on the defensive fun.

Shaw grounded to Encarnacion who threw to second.

The return throw by Troy Tulowitzki, that would have completed the double play, was dropped by Dermody.

By the fifth inning the sell-out crowd was jeering loudly and cheering sarcastically

The Sox failed to score. Jays fans, many of whom had left the building by the time this one was over, saw Sox right-hander Rick Porcello run his record to 20-3, the majors’ first 20-game winner, and saw Big Papi open his final regularseason series in Toronto with two hits, later pinch-run for by manager John Farrell following an eighthinning single.

Meanwhile, the once-dominant Jays rotation over the last six starts have combined for a 0-4 record and a 7.27 ERA, averaging 41⁄ innings

3 per outing.