Long night for E-Rod, Sox
Gives up three HRs in bad loss
TORONTO — When the Blue Jays lost 12-2 to the Red Sox on Monday, they kept their rookie hitting phenom and franchise cornerstone Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the bench the whole game.
So what was the Red Sox’ excuse for losing 10-3 last night?
They did not have a good one, outside of poor pitching from starter Eduardo Rodriguez (six runs allowed in five innings) and a couple of relievers as well.
Three solo home runs — Mitch Moreland, Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley Jr. — marked the high points of a lowlight type of night for the offense as well.
The Red Sox managed only one run off Toronto starter Marcus Stroman who, despite issuing six walks, held the Red Sox to only five singles in his sixplus innings. The Sox had their chances against Stroman, and wasted both of them.
Their first shot came in the third inning, when they loaded the bases with one out, only to have Stroman strike out first Mitch Moreland and then Xander Bogaerts to strand all three runners.
In the seventh, they knocked out Stroman after Bradley reached on an infield hit and Steve Pearce walked. Another walk to Andrew Benintendi against reliever Tim Mayza loaded them again, but Mookie Betts and Moreland struck out, then Bogaerts again stranded the runners by grounding out against reliever Joe Biagini.
Each starting pitcher was sharp early, and even though Stroman was the first to show cracks, it was Rodriguez who faltered in the most serious manner.
His trouble began in the fourth inning, which began with an innocent enough bloop single to right field by Guerrero. Rodriguez retired the next batter but when he started off Rowdy Tellez with a changeup a few inches inside, Tellez seemed ready for it, pulling a towering home run off the seconddeck facing for a 2-0 Blue Jays lead. Rodriguez’ second pitch to the next batter, Randal Grichuk, also was a changeup and also resulted in a home run, this one pulled to left field and giving the Blue Jays the 3-0 lead.
Manager Alex Cora, instead of pitching coach Dana LeVangie, came out for a chat, which was followed by a walk before Rodriguez retired the final two batters of his long inning via strikeouts.
The fifth inning also was a three-run affair, once again coming at the expense of Rodriguez at the hands of Tellez. Rodriguez retired the first two batters he faced before allowing another single to Guerrero and then a walk. Rodriguez avoided throwing Tellez a changeup, but the first non-fastball and any kind of pitch thrown on the inner half, a slider, Tellez saw well and launched for a three-run home run and the 6-0 Blue Jays lead.
Rodriguez was all done after five innings — the six earned runs allowed on six hits and three walks with five strikeouts in his 97 pitches — and was relieved by Tyler Thornburg, who did not wait four innings before allowing multiple runs.
Starting off the sixth with two walks and then allowing two singles to the bottom four members of the Blue Jays batting order, Thornburg allowed two runs before recording a single out. He did manage to strike out the top two in the Blue Jays lineup, Jonathan Davis and Guerrero, before hitting a batter to load the bases for Tellez. This time, Tellez struck out looking.
Colten Brewer allowed two runs in his equally ineffectual seventh inning.