Toronto Blue Jays at Boston Red Sox

· Major League Baseball

Toronto Blue Jays

65-69, 31-36 Away

Final
3 - 6

Boston Red Sox

68-64, 30-37 Home

Duran leads off with 20th homer, Red Sox stop skid with 6-3 win over Blue Jays

David Hamilton, Triston Casas and Wilyer Abreu also drove in runs for Boston, which had not won since beating Houston last Wednesday.

The turnaround started with Duran, manager Alex Cora said.

“He’s one of the best players in the big leagues. Every night, you’re like in awe of the things he’s doing,” Cora said. “He set the tempo right away. Got a pitch in, hit it hard and from there we just kept going.”

Duran is the first player in the majors since at least 1901 to reach 40 doubles, 10 triples, 20 home runs and 30 stolen bases in a season, according to the Red Sox.

“It’s a cool honor, but at the end of the day it doesn’t do anything for the team unless I’m helping them win. But it’s a pretty awesome stat to have,” Duran said.

Boston ended the Blue Jays’ five-game winning streak. Toronto has still won 10 of its last 15, placing the team on the verge of climbing from the bottom of the AL East standings.

Will Wagner hit his first career homer for Toronto and Daulton Varsho hit a solo shot in the ninth. Varsho also had a single in the seventh and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. The homer also extended the Blue Jays' run of consecutive games with at least one home run to 16 straight.

Duran hit his 20th homer of the season, driving an 0-1 fastball from Yariel Rodríguez to right. Boston added three in the fifth when Hamilton hit an RBI single, Casas drove in a run with a double and Abreu added an RBI single.

Wagner homered in the sixth, taking a sinker from Brennan Bernadino out to right-center and cutting Boston’s lead to 6-2. Varsho hit his in the ninth, taking Jansen to the deepest part of the ballpark.

Cooper Criswell pitched 3 1/3 innings for Boston, allowing one run on five hits and three walks. He also hit two batters. Greg Weissert (3-2) got the win with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.

Rodríguez (1-6) allowed six earned runs on eight hits over five innings. He struck out three and walked one.

"I think when you get down in this park it’s tough," Toronto manager John Schneider. “We had chances and I thought the guys really swung the bats well and just didn’t really cash in on the opportunities.”

Boston catcher Danny Jansen, who made history Monday when he played for the Red Sox in a game he started for Toronto before it was suspended because of weather June 26, helped stop two runs with some nice defense.

Jansen tagged out Joey Loperfido at the plate as he tried to score on a double by Wagner in the second.

In the fourth, Ernie Clement tried unsuccessfully to get around Jansen after tagging up on a fly to deep right by George Springer. Abreu’s throw was on target and in time to complete the unusual inning-ending double play.

Schneider said that Jansen was showing off the defensive skills he honed with the Blue Jays. Schneider also made several references to Boston's overall defense.

“You never want to make outs on the bases, but aggressive outs are OK,” Schneider said. “When you’re putting pressure on the other team to make really good plays, we’re good with that. Tonight they made really good plays.”

BACK AGAIN

The Red Sox have Rich Hill on the roster again, selecting the 44-year-old lefty from Triple-A Worcester on Tuesday. Hill has a chance to add a little more history to a lengthy career. One outing in 2024 would make him the only active player to appear in a game in each of the past 20 seasons.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: 3B Rafael Devers had the night off because of shoulder soreness. … Placed RHP Lucas Sims (right lat strain) on the 15-day injured list and designated RHP Brad Keller for assignment. The Red Sox added Hill to the active roster and recalled Weissert from Worcester.

RHP Chris Bassitt (9-12, 4.41 ERA) is slated to start Wednesday night for the Blue Jays, facing RHP Brayan Bello (11-6, 4.95) for the Red Sox.

How can I watch Toronto Blue Jays vs. Boston Red Sox?

TV Channel: Blue Jays at Red Sox 2022 MLB Baseball, is broadcasted on MLB.TV.
Online streaming: Sign up for Fubo.

Matchup Prediction

Red Sox: 57.5%

Blue Jays: 42.5%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Guerrero Jr. grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	Varsho homered to center (424 feet).
	9th Inning	Springer grounded out to third.
	9th Inning	Wagner grounded out to second.
	9th Inning	K. Jansen relieved Martin
	8th Inning	González struck out swinging.

Statistics

TOR		BOS
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
2	Hit By Pitch	0
14	Ground Balls	10
2	Strikeouts	9
3	Runs Batted In	6
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
11	Hits	9
0	Stolen Bases	1
3	Walks	1
0	Catcher Interference	0
3	Runs	6
1	Ground Into Double Play	1
1	Sacrifice Flies	0
33	At Bats	33
2	Home Runs	1
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
16	Runners Left On Base	7
0	Triples	0
0	Game Winning RBIs	1
0	Intentional Walks	0
3	Doubles	3
18	Fly Balls	14
0	Caught Stealing	0
144	Pitches	115
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	0
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
0	Is Qualified In Steals	1
20	Total Bases	15
39	Plate Appearances	34
324.0	Projected Home Runs	162.0
5	Extra Base Hits	4
7.8	Runs Created	4.2
.333	Batting Average	.273
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.606	Slugging Percentage	.455
.364	Secondary Average	.242
.410	On Base Percentage	.294
1.016	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.749
0.8	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	0.7
8.8	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	4.6
35.0	Batter Rating	43.0
16.5	At Bats Per Home Run	33.0
0.00	Stolen Base Percentage	1.00
3.69	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.38
.273	Isolated Power	.182
1.50	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	0.11
.077	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.029
.030	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.030
6.0	Runs Produced	12.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.7	Patience Ratio	0.5
0.3	Balls In Play Average	0.3
91.5	MLB Rating	87.3
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0