The Red Sox did something on Tuesday night they had not done since the beginning of the season: get shut out.
More than 2 1/2 months after getting blanked by the Orioles back on Opening Day, the Sox were kept off the scoreboard in what would go down as a forgetful 8-0 loss to the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla. on Tuesday.
Boston is now 25-18 on the season after dropping their last two contests.
Rodriguez surrenders five runs in five innings
Eduardo Rodriguez made his eighth start of the season for Boston in the first game of a three-game series, and he got rocked for five runs — all of which were earned — on a season-high 11 hits and one walk to go along with six strikeouts over five taxing innings of work.
Tuesday’s outing was truly a grind for Rodriguez, as the left-hander dealt with more than his fair share of traffic on the base paths by facing four or more hitters in every inning he pitched in.
The Blue Jays first got to Rodriguez with a two-out RBI single off the bat of Danny Jansen in the bottom of the second. A leadoff double from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in the fourth would prove to be the catalyst for another productive inning from Toronto, with Marcus Semien driving in a run on a single to right field and fielding error committed by Hunter Renfroe and Bo Bichette plating two more on a two-run double to center field.
Gurriel Jr. struck once more in the fifth, this time getting to Rodriguez with a groundball base hit to right field that plated Teoscar Hernandez from second to make it a 5-0 game.
After sitting down the final two hitters he faced in the fifth inning, Rodriguez’s evening would come to an end. The 28-year-old hurler threw 87 pitches (57 strikes) and managed to induce 13 total swings-and-misses while topping out at 94.1 mph with his four-seam fastball — a pitch he threw 27 times.
Ultimately picking up his second consecutive losing decision to fall to 5-2 on the year, Rodriguez’s ERA on the season now sits at 4.70. His next start should come against the Phillies in Philadelphia on Sunday.
Andriese struggles out of bullpen
In relief of Rodriguez, right-hander Matt Andriese got the first and only call out of the Red Sox bullpen in the middle of the sixth inning.
The good news here is that Andriese was the only relief pitcher the Red Sox needed to use on Tuesday, so the rest of their bullpen should be pretty fresh for the rest of this series against Toronto. The bad news is that Andriese got lit up for three runs on seven hits, one walk, and three strikeouts over three innings pitched.
A two-out walk of Bichette in the sixth would prove to be costly for Andriese, as he proceeded to yield back-to-back singles to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Hernandez with the outfielder driving in the shortstop to give his side a commanding 6-0 lead.
In the eighth, more two-out trouble arose for Andriese when — with a runner on second — he served up a two-run home run to noted slugger Randal Grichuk, which put the Blue Jays up 8-0.
Over his last seven appearances out of Boston’s bullpen, Andriese has allowed 11 earned runs on 20 hits in 9 2/3 innings of relief. That’s good for an ERA of 10.24.
Devers makes nifty play at third base
While Andriese did have a tough go of things on Tuesday, he did receive some defensive help from Rafael Devers to close out the seventh inning.
With two outs and runners at the corners, Semien ripped an 88 mph grounder in Devers’ direction at the hot corner.
Sprawling to his left upon contact, the young third baseman fielded the ball on a hop, quickly spun around, and — from his knees — threw out Semien at first base for the third and final out.
Sox lineup goes down quietly
As previously mentioned, the Red Sox were shut out by the Blue Jays on Tuesday, and that was primarily due to how dominating ace left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu was for Toronto.
The veteran southpaw limited Boston to just four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts over seven strong innings.
There were some instances where the Red Sox appeared to be in a position to get to Ryu, but nothing ever came of those opportunities as the Sox offense would finish the night having gone 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position while leaving eight runners on base as a team.
Next up: Richards vs. Stripling
The Red Sox will look to put an end to their current two-game skid back at TD Ballpark on Wednesday night.
Right-hander Garrett Richards will get the ball for Boston in the middle game of this three-game set, while fellow righty Ross Stripling will do the same for Toronto.
First pitch Wednesday is scheduled for 7:37 p.m. eastern time on NESN+.
(Picture of Eduardo Rodriguez: Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
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