The Red Sox were capable of sticking with the Blue Jays for nine innings Sunday, but could not hold on for a tenth as Doug Mathis gave up a walkoff hit in the tenth to give Toronto a 6-5 win.
For Daniel Bard, this outing was much like his last. After a clean first inning, Bard would take damage in the second, allowing a home run to Adam Lind on a slider that caught too much of the plate. While he wouldn't suffer the three-run second he did last time, a walk, wild pitch, and single would score another run in the third, and a leadoff double and single would cost him a third in the fourth.
If Bard's day had ended after the fifth, he would have left the game with the same decent line he'd managed five days ago. Instead, coming back out in the sixth, Bard lost all semblance of control, walking Adam Lind and hitting Jose Bautista to set up Edwin Encarnacion for an RBI double. With another run scoring on a groundout, Bard was left with five earned runs in six innings of work--another disappointing and not-at-all encouraging result.
The Sox' lineup had managed to keep in lockstep with the Jays offensively to that point. Scoring twice in the first with extra-base hits from Mike Aviles and Jacoby Ellsbury, the Sox would make it 3-0 in the second on Aviles' second double of the day. Immediately after the Jays had equalized at 3-3 in the fourth, Boston would strike again when Darnell McDonald tripled home Adrian Gonzalez and, once again, Aviles.
From there, however, the offense would die off, and while Scott Atchison, Andrew Bailey, and Justin Thomas managed to hold the Blue Jays in check through the end of the ninth, Doug Mathis had nothing going in the tenth. Loading the bases with two walks and a bunt, the Jays would end up walking off without even recording a single out in the tenth on Ricardo Nanita's fly ball single to right.