The Boston Red Sox have had their struggles against rookie pitchers this season and that was once again the case at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Saturday afternoon.
Marc Rzepczynski was effectively wild holding the Red Sox to just one run in the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 win in front of 36,926.
The win drops the Red Sox lead in the AL East to 2 games as the Yankees beat the Tigers this afternoon. The Jays improve to 45-47 and are now 11 games behind the local nine.
Brad Penny was on the bump for the Red Sox and wasn’t very effective this time out. He threw just over 50% of his 82 pitches for strikes. He took his 4th loss of the season as he allowed 6 runs on 8 hits and walk with 3 strikeouts in 5 innings.
The Red Sox bullpen had another nice day on the mound as Justin Masterson and Ramon Ramirez combined on 3 hitless and scoreless innings. Masterson struck out one while Ramirez walked 1 and struck out 2.
Rzepczynski picked up his first big league win in just his 4th start as he allowed the one run on 4 hits and 4 walks while striking out 4.
Jesse Carlson allowed a run in 2/3 of an inning while Jeremy Accardo, Jason Frasor and Scott Downs shutdown the Red Sox the rest of the way.
The Red Sox managed just six hits on the afternoon.
Jed Lowrie returned to the Red Sox lineup and added a solo home run off of Carlson. Rocco Baldelli knocked in the other run for the Red Sox with a single. Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, Jason Bay and Mike Lowell had the other hits.
With Clay Buchholz throwing well last night and Penny starting out bad the second half, you have to wonder if Red Sox GM Theo Epstein would think about moving Penny. Just a thought in my head.
It should be a great pitching matchup tomorrow afternoon in Toronto as Jon Lester and Roy Halladay square off. First pitch from Halladay is scheduled for 1:07 p.m. EDT.
