Colby Rasmus Homers And Triples: Blue Jays Beat Red Sox

Blue Jays 7 Red Sox

That turned out to be closer than it needed to be.

Colby Rasmus hit a ball about 415 feet and got a triple out of it and then hit a ball barely 300 feet and it was a home run. Fenway Park is such a fun place.

It was nice to see some offense for a change. Brett Lawrie, in his first game back after a long stint on the DL started the game off with a double. An out later, Edwin Encarnacion drove him home with a sac fly. In the 3rd Edwin hit a solo home run. In the 4th Moises Sierra hit a 2 run homer, hitting it a mile. Rasmus hit his triple, to dead center field, to lead off the 5th and Yunel Escobar drove him home with a single. Then, in the 8th, Rasmus hit a 2 run home run, just over the short wall in right field. As it turned out we needed those 2 runs.

Henderson Alvarez pitched a really good game. 6.1, 4 hits, 2 walks, 1 k and 2 earned. 1 of the earned runs scored after he came out of the game. He pitched the sort of game he has to, if he's going to be successful, everything was down and he was helped out by having a home plate umpire that called low strikes. Several times batters (on both clubs) complained about low strikes. That's the sort of umpire Henderson needs. 13 ground outs to 4 fly outs for Alvarez.

Darren Oliver took over for Alvarez with 1 out in the 7th and gave up a single that scored the Red Sox 2nd run and then gave up a fly ball that Rajai Davis made a great catch on, right against the 'Green Monster', and threw back to the infield to double up the runner who was well past 2nd.

Steve Delabar came in for the 8th, he gave up a lead off home run to Dustin Pedroia, but a strikeout, walk and double play got him out of the inning. Brandon Lyon gave up a 2 run homer in the 9th, to make things close but then got Scott Podsednik to strikeout to end the game.

Jays of the Day are Alvarez (.264), Sierra (.170), Edwin (.096) and I'm going to give one to Rasmus, even though he had just a .072 WPA, because I figure if you get 7 total bases you should get a JoD. Plus he turned out we needed the 2 runs he got us in the 8th. No Suckage Jays.

We seemed to have some trouble making throws to first. Yunel made an error on a easy ground ball in the first, throwing it well wide of Edwin. And twice, on easy double plays, Kelly Johnson bounced throws to Edwin. Eddie could have helped out by making a scoop on either of them, but they weren't easy catches.

Rajai Davis had a lot of work in left. He made that great catch that became a double play against the monster. He made an ill-advised leap at another ball, missing it by a fair bit, but he chased it down quick after, so I don't think it cost us anything.

Anthony Gose came in as a pinch runner, in the 9th, and stole 2nd and 3rd on consecutive pitches. Nice to see his speed. Unfortunately, he was tagged out in a rundown when Brett Lawrie hit a ground ball to second. He did stay in the rundown long enough for Lawrie to get to second. And Colby hit a home run right after.

Good win and a fun game thread. Thanks to all who joined in and thanks to Ben Buchanan for stopping by too, it was very nice to have a pleasant Red Sox fan to ask questions as the game went on.

Tomorrow we have another night game. Aaron Laffey (3-5, 4.46) gets the start in place of J.A. Happ. Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-4, 6.15) goes for the Red Sox.