The Blue Jays completed a sweep against the Red Sox Sunday afternoon, getting to Clay Buchholz for four runs as he fought through nine innings of work in a 4-3 loss.
The Red Sox offense would get off to an atypically competent start to the day in the second. Batting sixth for the first time in a long while, with Cody Ross on base, Jacoby Ellsbury caught a changeup that stayed belt-high over the outside of the plate and launched it to deep right field. With the ball dropping into the bullpen, the Sox took a rare early lead, 2-0 over the Jays.
Clay Buchholz, meanwhile, had taken care of business in the first couple of innings, working around a pair of walks without much difficulty. The third would prove little different, just with a single taking the place of the walks. All was going well until the fourth, when Buchholz experienced a bad case of Deja Vu.
In his last start against Seattle, Buchholz had pitched well in the first three innings, and then suddenly saw the Mariners squeeze ground ball after ground ball through the infield defense. Just like clockwork, up came the fourth inning against the Blue Jays, and in the blink of an eye every single thing was finding a hole and making its way into the outfield. Three runs would come across on tough-luck single after tough-luck single, leaving the Sox behind.
Carlos Villanueva managed to hold the lead for the Jays only until the sixth, where he was again victimized by the longball. A high slider to Dustin Pedroia would cost him as Pedroia found the Monster seats for a solo shot, evening the score at three-all.
After the unfortunate fourth, Buccholz would go into total lockdown mode for the Red Sox. Three up and three down in the fifth, the sixth, three in the seventh, and the eighth left him with 12 straight retired. The Jays would only break the streak at thirteen, with a Rajai Davis single into right field. It would be enough. A steal of second base and an Anthony Gose single moved him to third as Buchholz' pitch count rose above 110, and Omar Vizquel managed to put it in the air deep enough to score the go-ahead run.
With the Sox failing to respond in the bottom of the ninth, the game was over, and the Blue Jays had their sweep.
Read more on the Red Sox at Over the Monster and SB Nation Boston. Baseball Nation is your source for news and analysis around Major League Baseball.