Red Sox beat Jays in extras

Red Sox 4 Blue Jays 1 (10 innings)

That was a heck of a pitcher’s duel.

No one scored until the ninth.

Unfortunately, it was the 10th that mattered. Jason Grilli was terrible. He gave up a 1-out single, a walk, and then, an out later, another walk to load the bases. The final blow was a Mookie Betts double that unloaded the bases.

Gibby should have pulled him earlier. He threw a fair number of pitches yesterday, then today’s pitch 24 was the double that lost us the game. Being fair to Grilli, he wasn’t getting calls on the corners, but he should have been pulled.

Marco Estrada was terrific. He went 6 innings, allowed 3 hits, 2 walks, with 7 strikeouts. You couldn’t have asked for much better, maybe if he had thrown fewer pitches, but he was excellent.

Unfortunately, Chris Sale was, at least equally good. 8 innings 4 hits, 1 walk with 13 strikeouts. He was almost untouchable.

Our bullpen did the job, at least until the 9th. Joe Biagini pitched a 3-up, 3-down 7th. Joe Smith did the same in the 8th, picking up 2 strikeouts.

All was good, until 2 outs in the 9th. Roberto Osuna gave up a Mitch Moreland hard hit liner to right. Jose Bautista made a dive at it but was well short (yeah a right fielder with more range would have likely caught it). Kevin Pillar backed up the play, so the dive didn’t really cost us, it would have been a double anyway. Xander Bogaerts followed hitting one down the right field line. Bautista made a very nice throw to second, just getting Bogaerts (we needed a challenge to get the call, I thought it was too close to overturn, but was happy to be wrong). Moreland crossed the plate before the tag so the run scored.

Kendrys Morales led off the bottom of the inning with a home run, to dead center, off Craig Kimbrel to tie the game.

Jays of the Day: Morales (.433 WPA), Estrada (.360) and Joe Smith (.109).

Suckage: Grilli (-.463), Osuna (-.294), Bautista (-.149, 0 for 4, 4 strikeouts, add in the missed liner in right and the terrific throw, he still gets the award), Salty (-.142, 0 for 4, 4 strikeouts), Smoak (-.131, 1 for 4) and Darwin Barney (-.110).

We had 670 comment in the thread, pretty good for a weekday day game. Alan F led the way. Great job.