Red Sox Struggle in Weekend Series Against Blue Jays in Toronto
After a promising start to the weekend series in Toronto with Friday night’s 4-1 win over the Blue Jays, the Red Sox dropped the last 2 games and opened the 2nd half of 2009 on a down note.
In Friday night’s win, Clay Buchholz made the spot start for the Red Sox to give the Red Sox regular rotation a little extra rest for the last 2 1/2 months of the season. Buchholz pitched an effective 5 2/3 innings to qualify for the win. He gave up just 1 ER on 4 hits and 3 walks, with 3 K’s. Daniel Bard, Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon closed out the game with 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Papelbon earned his 24th save of the 2009 MLB schedule. The Red Sox jumped on Blue Jays starter Rickey Romero with Kevin Youkilis’ 2-run HR in the 1st inning. David Ortiz’s 2-run double in the 5th inning extended the Red Sox to lead to 4-1. It was a promising start for the road weekend series where the Red Sox have struggled, but the good vibes were not meant to continue.
Brad Penny had one of his worst starts of the 2009 MLB schedule for the Red Sox in Saturday’s 6-2 loss. Penny lasted only 5 innings, giving up 6 ER on 8 hits and 1 walk. Penny gave up 3 runs in the 4th inning and 2 more in the 5th inning and Manager Terry Francona had seen enough by then. Penny dropped to 6-4 on the season, while his season WHIP reached 1.50 and his season ERA reached 5.02 – not good stats at all. The Red Sox bats, meanwhile, were quiet – the team managed only 6 hits against 24-year old Marc Rzepczynski who was making just his 3rd career major league start. No Red Sox player had more than 1 hit.
Roy Halladay shut the Red Sox down in Sunday’s 3-1 loss. After a David Ortiz RBI sacrifice fly in the 1st inning, Halladay did not allow another run the rest of the way in his complete game victory. Halladay surrendered only 6 hits – he struck out 7 and did not walk a batter. Jon Lester took the loss for the Red Sox as his control cost him. Lester gave up 5 hits and 4 walks – the 2 runs that scored on Rod Barajas’ 2-RBI double in the 2nd inning that gave the Blue Jays the lead for good both reached base on Lester walks. Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis each had 2 hits for the Red Sox in defeat.
With the series loss and the Yankees sweeping their home series against the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers, the Red Sox lead in the AL East dropped to just 1 game over the Yankees.
