Toronto Blue Jays stifle Red Sox, 6-1
For the second night in a row, the Red Sox offense proved inept and starting pitcher Josh Beckett was no better as the Red Sox fell, 6-1, to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night. Beckett put the Red Sox in a hole early, allowing two runs in the first inning and another two runs in the second inning to put pressure on the Red Sox offense. The Boston batters did not respond well. Toronto’s left-handed starter, Aaron Laffey, held the Red Sox lineup scoreless through seven innings, and Boston was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The outing was the latest frustrating evening for Beckett, who is now 5-8 on the year and cannot seem to find his groove. He especially struggles in the first inning and has allowed 37 percent of his earned runs this season to come in the opening frame.
The loss also comes just one day after the Red Sox pulled off an encouraging walk-off victory over the Chicago White Sox. Any good vibes from Thursday night’s win, however, were dampened by the 6-1 thrashing at the hands of the Blue Jays Friday night. The Red Sox now sit at fourth place in the AL East, 10 games behind the division-leading Yankees.
Downers:
– As mentioned previously, the Red Sox offense struggled for the second consecutive night, but on Friday night, their issues were mostly related to inconsistency. Although the Boston lineup mustered nine hits Friday night, they could not put multiple hits together and thus manufactured one run, a terrible show of inefficiency.
– The Red Sox still need to find an option for the designated hitter spot in the lineup while David Ortiz is on the disabled list. Ortiz’s replacement on Friday, Pedro Ciriaco, went 0-for-3 and left four runners stranded.
– Will Middlebrooks still needs some work as far as fielding is concerned. The rookie made another error Friday night, bringing his season total to eight errors.
Bright spots:
– Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Dustin Pedroia, the three recent DL returns, all collected hits on Friday night. Ellsbury is 12-for-35 since his return from the DL and looks capable of playing up to the level of his All-Star season last year despite missing nearly three months of this season due to injury.
Looking ahead:
The Red Sox will face undefeated Carlos Villanueva in Game 2 of this weekend’s series against the Blue Jays. Boston will counter Villanueva with Aaron Cook, a fill-in man in the rotation who pitched well in his last outing, a 5-1 win over the White Sox.
