Boston Red Sox at Toronto Blue Jays

· Major League Baseball

Boston Red Sox

79-78, 42-37 Away

Final
4 - 1

Toronto Blue Jays

73-84, 38-38 Home

Houck works 5 shutout innings, Abreu reaches base 3 times as Red Sox beat Blue Jays 4-1

Spencer Horwitz ends Boston's shutout bid with 9th-inning RBI

The Red Sox opened their final road trip — a three-game set in Toronto — by improving to 4-0 in Canada this season.

Boston used 10 walks and five hits to win its 79th game. The Red Sox finished 78-84 in each of the last two seasons.

“We needed to be relentless in the strike zone and we were,” manager Alex Cora said. “Guys did an amazing job working counts, taking their walks.”

Abreu walked and scored on Vaughn Grissom’s sacrifice fly in the second, hit an RBI double in the third, and singled in the fifth, joining Jarren Duran as the only Boston players with multiple hits.

Houck (9-10) carried a perfect game into the fifth inning before walking Addison Barger with two outs. Ernie Clement followed with a single, but the 28-year-old right-hander got Jonatan Clase to fly out. Houck threw just 57 pitches, 36 strikes, in his first winning start since July 11 against Oakland.

“Felt good with everything, felt in synch with the body, felt strong,” Houck said. “I just went out there, trusted the defense and pounded the zone the whole night. It kind of felt like I had command over all the pitches.”

Houck made his 30th start of the season, reaching the mark for the first time.

“As a starter, that’s kind of what you strive for,” he said.

Leo Jiménez and George Springer hit back-to-back singles off Greg Weissert to start the sixth inning for Toronto, but Nathan Lukes grounded into a double play and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded out to end the threat.

Guerrero went 0 for 4 and saw his average slip to .324.

Boston left-hander Zach Penrod got two outs in the seventh and right-hander Luis Guerrero pitched 1 1/3 innings before righty Chris Martin pitched around Spencer Horwitz’s RBI single in the ninth.

Blue Jays right-hander Chris Bassitt (10-14) walked a career-high seven in 4 1/3 innings, two of which came around to score. The 35-year-old right-hander was charged with three runs and four hits, losing his second consecutive start against Boston.

Bassitt has won just once in his last eight outings, but insisted he wants to make his final start of the year against Miami in Game 162 on Sunday.

“I’m healthy, I’m good, so I’m going to start,” Bassitt said. “I don’t believe that just because it’s the last game and we’re out of it, I shouldn’t throw. That’s kind of, I wouldn’t say embarrassing, but it’s not fair to the bullpen.”

Toronto fell to 38-38 at home in front of a crowd of 22,254, its smallest of the season.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Red Sox: Closer and four-time All-Star Kenley Jansen will miss the rest of the season after being placed on the 15-day injured list because of a sore right shoulder.

RHP Bowden Francis (8-5, 3.47 ERA) is scheduled to start Tuesday against Red Sox RHP Brayan Bello (14-8, 4.49) in the second game of the three-game series.

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

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

Matchup Prediction

Blue Jays: 48.4%

Red Sox: 51.6%

*According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index

Scoring Summary

	9th Inning	Kirk grounded into double play, second to shortstop to first, Loperfido out at second.
	9th Inning	Loperfido ran for Horwitz
	9th Inning	Horwitz singled to center, Lukes scored.
	9th Inning	Guerrero Jr. grounded out to shortstop, Lukes to second.
	9th Inning	Lukes singled to left.
	9th Inning	Martin relieved Guerrero

Statistics

BOS		TOR
1	Games Played	1
1	Team Games Played	1
0	Hit By Pitch	0
12	Ground Balls	17
4	Strikeouts	1
4	Runs Batted In	1
0	Sacrifice Hit	0
5	Hits	6
2	Stolen Bases	0
10	Walks	1
0	Catcher Interference	0
4	Runs	1
1	Ground Into Double Play	2
1	Sacrifice Flies	0
28	At Bats	31
0	Home Runs	0
0	Grand Slam Home Runs	0
16	Runners Left On Base	9
1	Triples	0
1	Game Winning RBIs	0
0	Intentional Walks	0
3	Doubles	0
13	Fly Balls	13
1	Caught Stealing	0
164	Pitches	96
0	Games Started	0
0	Pinch At Bats	1
0	Pinch Hits	0
0.0	Player Rating	0.0
1	Is Qualified	1
1	Is Qualified In Steals	0
10	Total Bases	6
39	Plate Appearances	32
0.0	Projected Home Runs	0.0
4	Extra Base Hits	0
4.8	Runs Created	0.2
.179	Batting Average	.194
.000	Pinch Hit Average	.000
.357	Slugging Percentage	.194
.571	Secondary Average	.032
.385	On Base Percentage	.219
.742	OBP Pct + SLG Pct	.412
0.9	Ground To Fly Ball Ratio	1.3
5.0	Runs Created Per 27 Outs	0.2
31.5	Batter Rating	10.0
0.0	At Bats Per Home Run	0.0
0.67	Stolen Base Percentage	0.00
4.21	Pitches Per Plate Appearance	3.00
.179	Isolated Power	.000
2.50	Walk To Strikeout Ratio	1.00
.256	Walks Per Plate Appearance	.031
.393	Secondary Average Minus Batting Average	-.161
8.0	Runs Produced	2.0
1.0	Runs Ratio	1.0
0.6	Patience Ratio	0.2
0.2	Balls In Play Average	0.2
78.3	MLB Rating	66.8
0.0	Offensive Wins Above Replacement	0.0
0.0	Wins Above Replacement	0.0