A.J. Burnett has dominated the Boston Red Sox in his career and that trend continued this afternoon as he got 5 RBI from Travis Snider as the Toronto Blue Jays won 8-1 in front of 37,341 at Fenway Park.
With the loss the Red Sox fall to 3.5 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and their lead over the Jays is now at 6.5 games in the wild card.
It was not a good afternoon for Paul Byrd and the Red Sox.
Paul Byrd got the start for the Red Sox this afternoon and just stunk. He lasted 5 innings, giving up 5 runs on 10 hits. He didn’t walk anyone and struck out 3. David Aardsma made his first appearance off the disabled list and wasn’t any better than Byrd was. He alllowed 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk in an inning of work. Devern Hansack was perfect in his 3 innings of work striking out 3.
Jacoby Ellsbury led the way for the Red Sox offense with 2 of their 5 hits. He also had 2 stolen bases. Chris Carter, Alex Cora and Sean Casey had the other hits for the Red Sox in the game. The game also saw the MLB debut of George Kottaras, who struck out in his 1st AB but reached on passed ball.
The latter part of the game resembled a spring training game as at one point the Red Sox infield was Kevin Cash at 3rd, Jed Lowrie at short, Cora at 2nd and Casey at 1st with Carter in left, Van Every in right and Coco in center. The battery was Hansack and Kottaras.
Joe Inglett led off the game with a single. Byrd settled in to get Marcos Scutaro to line and he struck out Alex Rios before Vernon Wells doubled in Inglett to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Byrd struck out Lyle Overbay to end the 1st inning.
The Red Sox had a good chance to get the run back in the bottom half of the inning.
Ellsbury led off with a single and stole second with Dustin Pedroia at the plate. Pedroia ended up flying out to right moving Ellsbury to third but Burnett settled in and struck out David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis.
Byrd cruised through the 2nd and 3rd innings but ran into some trouble in the 4th.
Rios led off with a fly out to center field. Wells followed that with a double and then was thrown at third on Overbay’s single to short center. Adam Lind brought in Overbay with a double but was thrown out at third but not before the run scored to make it 2-0.
Rod Barajas led off the 5th with a single and went to second on a Scott Rolen single. Snider then cleared the bases with a 3-run homer to put the Jays up 5-0.
Byrd allowed a leadoff single to Overbay and then Aardsma came in for him. He came in and got Lind to ground into a double play but then walked Barajas. A Rolen double moved Barajas to third and Snider ground rule double scored them both as the lead swelled to 7-0. An Inglett single scored Snider for the Jays final run of the afternoon.
The Red Sox got their only run of the game in the 7th inning.
Burnett started the inning with the strikeout of Kottaras but the passed ball by Barajas allowed him to reach. Burnett got Coco to ground into a fielder’s choice but an error by Inglett allowed both runners to be safe. Jesse Carlson came in for Burnett and got Ellsbury to ground into a fielder’s choice that got Coco at second. Cash pinch-hit for Pedroia and hit a sacrifice fly scoring Kottaras to make it 8-1 Jays.
The Red Sox will most certainly look to put this game behind them and move forward when Bartolo Colon takes the hill in nightcap of the doubleheader that begins at 7:05 PM.
Notes and musings:
Blue Jays @ Boston Red Sox 9.13.08 Game 1 boxscore
Today is Daisuke Matsuzaka’s 28th birthday.
The 7-0 win on Friday was the Red Sox’ 15th shutout of the season, the most in the majors and Boston’s 2nd most in a season in the last 30 years (17 in 2002).
Last night was the Red Sox’ 9th shutout at home, tied with Cleveland for 3rd in the majors behind the Los Angeles Dodgers (11) and Tampa Bay (10).
The Red Sox’ last 2 victories have been by a shutout, the other a 3-0 win over Tampa Bay on Monday. That’s the 2nd time that has occurred in 2008, the other June 15 at Cincinnati and June 17 at Philadelphia.
Sox on streaks:
Coco Crisp saw his 12-game hitting streak end
Sean Casey has a 5-game hitting streak
Jacoby Ellsbury has a 4-game hitting streak
Dustin Pedroia saw his 3-game hitting streak end
Chris Carter has a 3-game hitting streak
