Blue Jays hit five home runs, beat Red Sox 7

As far as early August series go, this weekend’s showdown between the Red Sox and Blue Jays is as big as it gets. The division rivals have been jockeying for position in the American League Wild Card hunt for months, and whoever comes out on top here at Fenway could set the tone for the race going forward.

Unfortunately for the Red Sox, the Blue Jays wasted no time making sure they struck first.

Toronto hit the ball all over the yard in Friday night’s series opener, powering five home runs — including one on the first pitch of the game — to beat the Red Sox 7-3.

Though it was only Toronto’s first win over Boston in eight tries this season, it came at a particularly crucial time, giving the Blue Jays three games of separation in the Wild Card standings. No matter what happens the rest of the weekend, the Blue Jays are guaranteed to leave Boston on Sunday in playoff position.

Making his first start since Tuesday’s trade deadline, James Paxton got hammered early by the Blue Jays, who were seemingly roping line drives off the lefty at will. Whit Merrifield sent Paxton’s first pitch of the game into the Green Monster seats for a leadoff solo home run, and after George Springer flied out to deep left field, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. crushed a cutter 387 feet into the Monster for another solo shot.

The following inning Paxton allowed a third solo homer, this time a moonshot by rookie Davis Schneider in his first career MLB at bat.

“Not ideal,” Paxton said afterwards. “Left some balls out in the middle of the plate and they did damage. They’re good hitters.”

Things could have gotten a lot worse after the Blue Jays subsequently loaded the bases in the second, but Paxton got Guerrero to ground out to end the threat. That wound up becoming a trend for Toronto, who despite their prolific performance went 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine men on base.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox closed the gap after Jarren Duran hit a two-run opposite field home run to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the third. The Blue Jays made it 4-2 on a Springer RBI double in the fourth, but Paxton then got Guerrero to line out to end the inning and then stranded two more to finish his outing with a scoreless fifth.

The trouble for Boston was outside of Duran, nobody could seem to come through with a big hit, either.

The Red Sox failed to capitalize on a leadoff double by Masataka Yoshida in the fourth, and in the fifth Alex Verdugo struck out with runners on the corners. The Blue Jays struck for a fourth solo home run immediately afterwards when Daulton Varsho took reliever Mauricio Llovera deep, and Guerrero delivered an RBI double to stretch the lead to four runs.

Yu Chang cranked a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to inch the Red Sox closer, but the club never seriously threatened again.

Blue Jays ace Alek Manoah, who is having a nightmare season and has continued to struggle since returning from his demotion to the minors, largely kept the Red Sox in check. Though he allowed the two home runs, he finished his outing with three runs allowed over 6.2 innings, giving up six hits and two walks with five strikeouts.

“It was on and off, it was a weird game to be honest with you,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “They played good defense. I think (Manoah) was able to get outs when he needed to, we hit some balls hard, it was kind of a weird night offensively.”

Matt Chapman capped off the fireworks with a fifth solo home run in the top of the ninth, tying Toronto’s season-high for homers in a game, but while things didn’t go their way the Red Sox projected an air of calm in the clubhouse afterwards.

“It’s one game, it’s over,” Duran said. “We’re going to flush it. It’s baseball, it happens. They came out swinging, they got some good swings off early and we put up a couple of runs but it’s baseball, you’re going to win some, lose some, but we have confidence in ourselves. It’s just a game and we’re going to move on.”

The Red Sox fall to 57-52 and now stand three games back of Toronto for the last AL Wild Card spot. The teams will be back in action Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 4:10 p.m.

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