JBJ ties the game at 4 in the top of the 9th. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
The Red Sox played spoiler to the first-place Blue Jays yesterday in the Great White North. It’s always a little disappointing to help the Yankees gain a game in the standings, but I’ll take it. This game started out pretty uneventful, with Wade Miley and R.A. Dickey limiting baserunners and matching zeros through the first five innings.
In the top of the 6th, Xander took Dickey deep on the first pitch he saw, giving the Sox a brief 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the 6th, Miley gave up a two run home run to Edwin Encarnacion, putting the Red Sox in a 2-1 hole. A shallow hole, to be sure, and in the top of the next inning, the Red Sox would get back to even ground thanks to a Brock Holt double and a Jackie Bradley Jr. “seeing eye double.” That’s not really a thing, but watch this video and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The ball was just out of the reach of the second baseman, Pennington, and Jackie hustled into second while the defense was chasing the ball down.
The game was knotted at two until the bottom of the 8th, when Noe Ramirez walked back to back men and gave up an RBI single to start off the inning. He’d give up another infield single before being lifted for Jean Machi, who got a strikeout of Martin before surrendering an RBI single to Kevin Pillar.
The score stood at 4-2 Jays heading into the top of the 9th, with Toronto’s closer Roberto Osuna standing on the mound. As someone who has Osuna in fantasy I can tell you he’s either dominant or very hittable, with rarely any outings in the middle ground. Fortunately for the Sox, Roberto was in the latter category yesterday. Holt got things started with a double. Swihart struck out looking to bring up JBJ, who immediately went down 0-2 and for a minute it looked like Osuna was in pretty good shape to close out the game. Jackie, before his double in the 7th, had been 0 for his last 21 and 1 for his last 32, and as I mentioned, that double wasn’t exactly a scorcher.
But after taking a couple of balls, Jackie stroked a 2-2 dead red fastball for a game-tying two-run home run. It was a “Bondsian” sweet, easy swing where he knew right off the bat that he got all of it, as evidenced by his inability to inhibit that little hop he took after his first step. On swings like that, everything works in such perfect harmony that you don’t even feel the impact of the ball on the bat.
After a Mookie groundout, Pedroia would walk and Xander would single, bringing up Big Papi with two out, two on, and the game tied in the 9th. Hmm think he’ll come through? He poked an RBI single to left to bring home Pedroia, who executed some fancy footwork to avoid a Russell Martin tag. 5-4.
The Sox would add a couple of insurance runs on a wild pitch and an RBI single by Rusney. Good thing too, because Robbie Ross Jr., who has become the de facto closer, surrendered a two-run job to Joey Bats in the bottom of the 9th, but was able to strand the game-tying run at second base to close the door.
Notes:
-Miley had a weird start, giving up 2 in 6.2, striking out 7, but he also walked 5 and gave up 3 hits, including the homer to Edwin.
-It’s such a cliché, but Pedroia really does give 100% on every play in every game. It’s a treat to watch him leg out a triple, score the go-ahead run on a creative slide, and start a key bases-loaded double play. All in a day’s work.
-Holt made this ridiculous play in the bottom of the 6th.
Great range from the Brock Star.