Lester Hammered As Sox Return To Last (48-48)

Lester was simply crushed in every
aspect

This was a horrible game from start to finish, and I don't even want to write about it. The Blue Jays started off ridiculously strong as Brett Lawrie homered on the first pitch of the game, a sign of what was to come. After a walk and a single, Edwin Encarnacion drove in a run with a ground-rule double and J.P. Arencibia drove in another with a groundout. They took two more in the inning on an RBI double by Rajai Davis and an RBI bunt by Jeff Mathis to give them a very early 5-0 lead. However, the Red Sox bats came out strong too as they put runners at the corners with one out. Adrian Gonzalez came through with a bomb to right-center to score three and put the Red Sox right back in it at 5-3. That was before a second inning where back-to-back home runs over the monster by J.P. Arencibia and Rajai Davis netted the Jays four runs and a 9-3 lead, though.

Tazawa tossed three shutout innings

A rare sight in this game, a couple of scoreless innings followed that second. The Red Sox finally broke the snide with a sacrifice fly in the fourth that cut it to 9-4. However, a two-run shot by Travis Snider in the fifth extinguished that hope. The Red Sox would benefit from a homer of their own in the fifth, though, as Jacoby Ellsbury lifted one to center to make it 11-5. A two-out double by Ryan Sweeney in the sixth set up an RBI double for Mike Aviles, who scored on an RBI single by Nick Punto to make it 11-7 and make it reasonably close. However, it wouldn't stay that way for long as the Blue Jays erupted in the eighth for four runs to make it 15-7 and officially close the book on a miserable game and a miserable series for the Red Sox.


Bright Spots:
Junichi Tazawa- 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 5 K
Alfredo Aceves- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 K
Jacoby Ellsbury- 2-5, 2 R, 1 HR, 1 RBI
Adrian Gonzalez- 2-4, 2 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI
Mike Aviles- 1-3, 1 R, 1 2B, 2 RBI

Dull Spots:
Jon Lester- 4 IP, 9 H, 11 R, 5 BB, 2 K, L (5-8)
Mark Melancon- 0.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R
Daniel Nava- 0-4, 1 K, 1 LOB
Cody Ross- 0-4, 1 LOB

Player of the Game:
Adrian Gonzalez- Gonzalez's first inning home run was one of very few bright spots in a horrible game, he is now .296/9/58 this season.