Blue Jays win 6-5 in 10th to sweep Red Sox
BOSTON (AP) — Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano threw his way out of a baseless jam in the ninth inning at Fenway Park.
After that, he had to shut down the Red Sox one more time.
“I was kind of trying to erase what happened the last inning because it was a lot of adrenaline,” he said after leading Toronto to a 6-5 win over Boston in 10 innings on Thursday night. “You had to stay focused. We have three more batters to come and let’s win a game.”
One night after making a save in an extra-inning win over Boston, Romano (5-3) took the win and sealed Toronto’s three-game sweep. The Blue Jays, who won three out of four against the AL East-leading Yankees at the start of the week, have won eight games in a row at Fenway Park this year.
“We can hang out with anyone, you know what I mean?” said Romano. “We got into their place and yes, we won some games. So I guess it was a huge road trip. Good for morale and just to let us know we’re real.”
The Red Sox had a runner on third base with no outs in the eighth, then loaded the bases against Romano with no outs in the ninth, failing to score both times.
In the 10th, automatic runner Cavan Biggio moved to third base on a groundout and rushed home on George Springer’s grounder to short, slipping head-first under the tag while the throw from Xander Bogaerts came in too high.
Danny Jansen had three hits, including a homerun, for the Blue Jays, who have won seven of their last eight games. They are 8-1 in Boston this year, winning the last two in extra innings.
After JD Martinez singled on the ninth and Bogaerts doubled, Christian Arroyo was walked intentionally to load the bases. Romano struckout Franchy Cordero and then, with five infielders on the field, Kiké Hernandez hit a hard helicopter to third baseman Matt Chapman, who stepped on third base and threw to first for the inning-ending double play .
“He has a great internal clock and clearly a cannon as an arm,” said Toronto interim manager John Schneider. “So you want the ball to hit him in pretty much every scenario. He’s shown it this whole series.”
John Schrieber (3-3) gave up no hit in the 10th but took the loss on the unearned run that scored on fielder’s choice. Reese McQuire collected three basehits for Boston, which has lost four in a row and six of its seven games.
McGuire led off the eighth with a line drive into the right corner of the field, which slipped under the glove of Teoscar Hernandez and went to the wall, turning a double into a triple.
Adam Cimber struckout Bobby Dalbec, hit Jarren Duran and then fanned out Tommy Pham before Tim Mayza got Rafael Devers on a hard grounder that went off the glove of first baseman Vladimir Guerrero, but slowed enough for second baseman Santiago Espinal to fielding and throwing back to first for third out.
GLOVE WORK
Dalbec was busy on first base.
In the fourth, he was unable to get under an error pop-up in the stands, allowing Guererro to stay at the plate with two outs. He followed with a two-run single to give the Blue Jays a 4-3 lead.
But in the sixth, he came out of the sack to grab Devers’ poor throw on Santiago Espinal’s hard chopper for third. Dalbec held out his hand as he landed to tap Espinal into the back before reaching the base.
Jansen followed with a solo homerun. The 108 mph shot was caught bare-handed by a fan in the front row of seats atop the Green Monster.
TRAINERS ROOM
Red Sox: 2B Trevor Story was 3-for-4 with a single, double and homerun in a rehab start for Double-A Portland. … LHP James Paxton will be out after torn a side muscle while trying to recover from Tommy John surgery. He left his first rehab start last week after only two batters.
NEXT ONE
Blue Jays: Return home to meet the Angels. Toronto RHP Mitch White (0-1) takes on LHP Reid Detmers (4-4).
Red Sox: Open a three-game series against the Rays. RHP Michael Wacha (8-1) starts for Boston; The Tampa Bay entree is TBD.
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