Broken pitchers cost the Sox big as they fell to the Blue Jays 7-5 in Fenway Park.
Making his third start since a short trip to the disabled list, Felix Doubront seems to have confirmed that he remains broken. While the first run that came across was caused by little more than a chopper past first base in the opening frame, as Doubront's pitch count, he became less and less effective. The third saw Edwin Encarnacion catch a hanging changeup for a home run, and in the fourth it was a flat fastball that cost Doubront a two-run shot.
A triple into the triangle to lead off the fifth would end Doubront's night, with the runner scoring on a blooper off Clayton Mortensen. That made the lead 5-0 in favor of the Jays, as the Sox had been picking up exactly where they'd left off on their road trip: stranding baserunners. Like clockwork, the Sox would send one man to the basepaths in each of the first four innings, and then leave them sitting there come the end of the inning.
The breakthrough, such as it was, finally came in the fifth inning, and was thanks largely to some defensive mediocrity by the Jays. Ryan Kalish was the man to score, reaching on a one-out bunt and then advancing to third on a Scott Podsednik single. Dustin Pedroia nearly ended the inning right there with a ground ball that could have been two, but Edwin Encarnacion could not pick the ball at first, allowing the run to score.
While Clay Mortensen, Rich Hill, and Chris Carpenter were busy holding the Jays down through the eighth, the Sox actually managed to climb back into the game. Mauro Gomez knocked home Pedro Ciriaco after a walk and a stolen base to make it 5-2 in the seventh, and Dustin Pedroia caught an inside fastball, sending it out of Fenway entirely to make it 5-3 after eight.
Unfortunately, what chances they had would quickly go up in a puff of smoke thanks to the other clearly broken pitcher on the Red Sox' roster: Daniel Bard. While a good play by Dustin Pedroia got Anthony Gose hung up between third and home after he reached third with nobody out, Bard did not make use of his newfound fortune, offering up a slider over the plate to Colby Rasmus, who jacked it into the right field stands for a two-run shot.
Mauro Gomez would go deep in the ninth. With two runs scoring on the shot, however, it only served to make the Bard homer more painful. The Sox failed to continue their rally, and fell for the ninth time in ten games.
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