1 week Ago By Mac Cerullo
You knew the Red Sox were going to break through eventually. For the second straight night Boston found itself locked in a pitchers duel with the Toronto Blue Jays that stretched into extra innings. This time the story had a happy ending, as the Red Sox were able to avoid a four-game sweep thanks to Trevor Story’s walk-off grounder in the bottom of the 10th.
The win snapped Boston’s three-game losing streak and brings the club back to .500 on the season. Much like Tanner Houck and Kevin Gausman on Wednesday night, Walker Buehler vs.
Chris Bassitt proved to be another fantastic pitchers duel between two likeminded arms. Buehler and Bassitt both boast expansive arsenals — with Buehler utilizing seven pitches and Bassitt eight — and the two starters utilized their stuff to great effect. Coming in having allowed nine earned runs over 9.
1 innings through his first two starts, Buehler initially looked like he was in for another rocky day after allowing singles to two of the first three batters he faced. But Buehler drew a double play to get out of trouble and went on to enjoy his best outing by far since joining the Red Sox. Bassitt, meanwhile, became the latest Blue Jays pitcher to tie the Red Sox batters into knots.
He was nearly unhittable through the first five innings, but provided an opening in the sixth when he walked Jarren Duran. With runs at a premium, Duran stole second and tagged up to reach third on a Rafael Devers flyout, and that helped set the table for Alex Bregman, who came through with Boston’s first hit with a runner in scoring position in 13 chances dating back to Tuesday. Trying to win with only one RBI single was always going to be a tall order, and the Red Sox immediately fell off the tightrope in the following inning.
Buehler had gotten stronger as his outing went along and at one point retired 12 of 13 batters, but he made a costly mistake in the seventh when he gave up a four-pitch leadoff walk to Will Wagner. Buehler recorded one more out before Alex Cora opted for left-hander Justin Wilson, and the inherited runner came in to score on a subsequent RBI single by Tyler Heineman that tied the game. Buehler finished with one run allowed over 6.
1 innings, giving up four hits and a walk while striking out seven. Bassitt was charged with one run over 5.2 innings, including five hits, one walk and five strikeouts.
For all the trouble Boston has had on offense, the club’s defense has also taken a concerning step back. Since returning to Fenway Park the Red Sox have committed 11 errors in seven games, and the last of those proved costly when the club couldn’t convert what would have been an inning-ending double play to get out of the seventh. With the go-ahead runner at third, Wilson drew a ground ball from Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
, but rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell opted to flip the ball to Trevor Story rather than tag the bag himself, leading to a bad throw that allowed Guerrero to reach safely and Alan Roden to score. Fortunately for the Red Sox, the Blue Jays returned the favor with three gifts of their own. First Toronto allowed Rob Refsnyder to reach on an error at third, then the Blue Jays couldn’t complete what would have been an inning-ending double play on an Alex Bregman grounder.
That moved Refsnyder to third, and with Triston Casas at the plate reliever Yimi Garcia threw a pitch in the dirt that allowed Refsnyder to score and tie the game at 2-2. Once in extra innings the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly by George Springer, but the Red Sox answered with an RBI single by Jarren Duran to tie the game again. Duran was caught stealing trying to get into scoring position, but the Red Sox got another opportunity anyway after Devers singled and Bregman and Casas were each hit by pitches by Blue Jays right-hander Nick Sandlin to load the bases with one out.
That brought Story to the plate, and after a week in which the club couldn’t put the ball in play, Story sent a dribbler to second that the Blue Jays couldn’t do anything with..
