The Red Sox and Blue Jays are set to kick off their three-game set Friday night as Josh Beckett takes on Aaron Laffey.
We'll keep you up-to-date on all the action as it goes down in Fenway Park.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, End 8th -- Two straight games starting with eight scoreless innings is not a good sign for the Red Sox, who are looking like they're ready for another one of their downward slides. They were saved from the loss last night by Cody Ross, but five runs is a rather larger deficit to overcome, and two straight nights of offensive ineptitude of this level are reminiscent of the bad run against the Nationals and out west.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, Mid 8th -- Mark Melancon ends up giving up a one-out walk, but quickly induces a double play off the bat of Kelly Johnson to give himself another scoreless inning post-return.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, End 7th -- So of course they don't score in the seventh. Even giving up leadoff singles from Will Middlebrooks and Mike Aviles, Aaron Laffey manages to get a strikeout, ground out, and pop-up to end things both in the inning, and possibly in the game.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, Mid 7th -- Andrew Miller comes into the game and records a 1-2-3 seventh, striking out Anthony Gose to get it started. The Sox are getting into the territory where they need to score in every inning to really have a chance.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, End 6th -- Another single is good. No runs is bad. The Red Sox story.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, Mid 6th -- Josh Beckett gets through the sixth around a walk. Not counting the unearned run and the umpire's mistake, he has that "quality start."
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, End 5th -- For the second straight night the Sox are through the fifth without a run. They don't have much more to show against Laffey than they did against Quintana, either, with just six singles to their names after a Kelly Shoppach single.
Blue Jays 5, Red Sox 0, Mid 5th -- An errant throw from Will Middlebrooks turns a one-out ground ball into two bases and, after a bloop falls into center, a run.
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 0, End 4th -- The Sox provide Laffey with another 1-2-3 frame, though this time it comes with a double play courtesy of Will Middlebrooks.
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 0, Mid 4th -- Josh Beckett enjoys his best inning of the night, striking out two batters in another 1-2-3 inning. Perhaps the goal now can be a would-have-been quality start but for the efforts of the umpire.
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 0, End 3rd -- The Red Sox are up to four hits on the night now, and one even escaped the infield! But with Carl Crawford and Dustin Pedroia flying out behind them, the Sox are still scoreless.
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 0, Mid 3rd -- Beckett finally enjoys a scoreless inning, and finished it off in 1-2-3 fashion, no less. Once again the starter shows up to the game an inning or two late. Same ol', same ol' for the Sox.
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 0, End 2nd -- Also on the list of things the Sox did not need: a 1-2-3 inning. Unfortunately that's what they were stuck with in the second. It's not a comforting sight after being shut down for eight innings last night.
Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 0, Mid 2nd -- This time the fault lies with Josh Beckett and nobody else. A leadoff double off the wall in left, after all, can hardly be blamed on an umpire. While Beckett picked up a ground out and strikeout to make it two down with a man on third, he would walk Anthony Gose after getting ahead 0-2, and then surrendered another double to left to make it 4-0. Not what the Sox needed.
Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 0, End 1st -- Carl Crawford runs out another infield single to give the Sox a runner in the first, but Dustin Pedroia remains hitless and Adrian Gonzalez grounded out to first behind him to leave the Sox unable to gain back any ground in the first.
Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 0, Mid 1st -- It's another costly first inning for the Red Sox, but they've partially got a man in black to blame for that. After a one-out triple put Colby Rasmus at third, Edwin Encarnacion grounded sharply enough to third that Will Middlebrooks felt comfortable throwing home. Kelly Shoppach threw down the block, grabbed the throw, and then made sure the tag was down after the umpire hesitated to make the call.
Except he still called him safe. Despite replays showing that Shoppach had clearly blocked the plate completely and kept Rasmus from ever touching it, and despite the umpire for some reason waiting until well after the play at the plate had actually gone by, the call was still safe.
The second run would come in to score when a weak ground ball found its way through the right side of the infield, and a sharper one found the hole on the left side. Those are at least partially on Beckett, but the first run never should have come across.