The Red Sox went to Toronto Monday night having won seven in a row and 32 of their last 44 games. The Blue Jays were reeling a bit, having lost seven of their last 10. So much for “momentum,” right? The Blue Jays turned things on their head with a blowout victory behind dominant starting pitching and power hitting.
The Jays’ bats jumped on Red Sox starter Connor Seabold early. George Springer drew a leadoff walk and scored on Bo Bichette’s single. It was 1-0 before an out was recorded. Springer homered in the third, and a few batters later Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. hit his 18th homer of the year, a two-run shot to make it 4-0.
What a laser, clocking in at over 108 miles per hour.
Before the end of the fifth inning, a two-run shot from Matt Chapman extended the lead to 7-0, where it would stay before the Red Sox put up a couple meaningless runs to make the game look closer than it actually was.
Even with all the homers, the star of the game was Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman. The ace struck out 10 in his seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits and two walks.
This marked the first game of a huge week for the Blue Jays. They have a three-game series against the Red Sox before hosting the Rays for a five-gamer.
For now, all three of those teams are out of reach with the Yankees having an 11-game lead in the division to start the week. There are now three wild cards per league and the division has all three of those spots right now, though the Guardians aren’t far off and there’s always jockeying for position to be done.
Now with the Blue Jays’ win and the Rays idle on Monday, here’s how things look:
- Red Sox, 42-32
- Blue Jays, 41-32
- Rays, 40-32
- Guardians, 36-33, 1 1/2 games back of Rays
