The Red Sox were embarrassed by the Blue Jays at Fenway Park on Friday night. In its first game back from the All-Star break, Boston fell to Toronto by a final score of 28-5 to drop to 48-46 on the season.
Nathan Eovaldi, making his 14th start of the year, surrendered nine earned runs on eight hits and two walks to go along with three strikeouts over just 2 2/3 innings of work.
After striking out the very first batter he faced, Eovaldi ran into early trouble when he gave up a one-out double to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who moved up to third base and then scored on an RBI groundout off the bat of Bo Bichette. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. led off the second inning with a single, which was followed by a 421-foot two-run home run from Matt Chapman.
Taking a 3-0 lead into the third, the Blue Jays proceeded to go off for seven runs. Eovaldi loaded the bases with one out before yielding a two-run single to Gurriel Jr. Former Red Sox prospect Santiago Espinal followed with a run-scoring single of his own before No. 9 hitter Danny Jansen drew a four-pitch walk to fill the bases yet again with two outs.
Eovaldi’s night wound end there as Toronto’s lineup flipped back over. The 32-year-old finished with a final pitch count of 63 (42 strikes) but was only able to induce seven total swings-and-misses. His ERA on the season now sits at 4.30.
In relief of Eovaldi, Austin Davis received the first call out of the Boston bullpen from manager Alex Cora. Raimel Tapia greeted the left-hander by lifting a 384-foot fly ball to center field that Jarren Duran lost in the twilight. As a result of Duran’s miscue, Tapia cleared the bases and crossed home plate himself for a rare inside-the-park grand slam.
That made it a 10-0 game in favor of Toronto. It tacked on four more runs in the fourth when Davis served up a solo shot to Tesocar Hernandez and a three-run blast to Jansen. Boston was able to get three of those runs back in its half of the fourth, as Christian Vazquez took Kevin Gausman deep before Jackie Bradley Jr. clubbed a two-run homer off the Blue Jays starter.
Things only got worse from there, however. Kaleb Ort recorded the first two outs of the fifth, and then the Jays went off for 11 runs. Eight of those were charged to Ort, including one in which Matt Chapman hit a 38-foot pop-up that fell between Ort, Kevin Plawecki, and Rafael Devers. Darwinzon Hernandez came on for Ort and gave up five runs of his own — four of which were earned.
In the bottom of the sixth, Vazquez went deep for a second time to cut the deficit down to 23 runs at 27-4. Rob Refsnyder tattooed a 405-foot solo shot off Blue Jays reliever Jeremy Beasley in the seventh for his fourth big fly of the year.
After Jake Diekman and Hirokazu Sawamura each tossed scoreless frames of relief in the seventh and eighth innings, Yolmer Sanchez — a position player — was called upon for the ninth.
Sanchez, making his second career relief appearance, allowed one run on three hits. He threw 15 pitches (10 strikes) ranging from 40.5 mph to 82.8 mph, per Baseball Savant.
All told, seven different Red Sox pitchers combined to give up 28 runs (27 earned) on 29 hits. The 28 runs are the most the Blue Jays have ever scored in a single game and the most the Red Sox have ever given up in a single game. The Sox’ run differential coming into play on Friday was plus-18. It is now minus-5.
In addition to falling to 48-46 on the season, Boston also falls to 12-27 against divisional opponents and 5-13 in the month of July.
Next up: Manoah vs. Crawford
The Red Sox will look to put an end to a three-game losing streak that dates back to last weekend and bounce back against the Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon. Kutter Crawford is slated to get the start for Boston while fellow right-hander Alek Manoah is in line to do the same for Toronto.
First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. eastern time on NESN.
(Picture of Green Monster scoreboard: Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)
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