Price not right for the Jays, fall 5-2 to Red Sox

Red Sox 5 Blue Jays 2

Early on this game had the feeling of “one of those games”, and though it didn’t end up a rout, neither was it as close as the final score indicated as the Jays never led and never really threatened to.

Marco Estrada got off to a decent start, working around a single i each of the first two innings. The third inning was a different story, as with one out Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi hit a pair of hard doubles to put the Red Sox on the board. Hanly Ramirez followed that by sending a fliner to left field on a big swing that just got over the wall for a two run home run. That put the Boston up 3-0, which ended up all they needed.

Estrada followed that up with walk to J.D. Martinez, but settled into a nice groove setting down the Red Sox in order once through the lineup. This allowed him get to (and finish) th sixth inning despite a high early pitch count, a much needed reprieve for a bullpen that has been heavily used over the last week.

Estrada allowed a final run in the 6th, on a double by Xander Bogaerts followed by a single from Rafael Devers. Both hit Estrada hard, but he finished th einning with weak and routine contact.

Offensively, the Jays didn’t do a whole lot against David Price early, and largely squandered the opportunities they did have later before the bullpen locked things down convincingly.

The first chance came in the 3rd inning, as Gio Urshela singled in his Blue Jays debut with out and was followed by Teoscar Hernandez doing the same. That brought up Josh Donaldson, who ripped a ball, but right at Bogaerts who doubled off Urshela to end the threat. This was when one go the sense it just wasn’t going to do this afternoon.

The 4th inning presented another big opportunity, as the Jays put two on with two outs after a pair of walks to Justin Smoak and Kevin Pillar. Anthony Alford lined a single to plate Pillar. That brought up Luke Maile with the best chance yet to even up the score, but he had apparently used up all the heroics yesterday as he struck out.

Teoscar had a one out double in the 5th that amounted to nothing, and Smoak homered leading off the 6th to cut the deficit to 4-2. That was as close as it got, as the Red Sox went to the pen. The Jays were limited to a couple of singles (one immediately erased on a double play) and a reach-on-error the rest of the way.

Jays of the Day: Alford (+0.114 WPA)

Suckage: Estrada (-0.140, though did a serviceable job of getting through 6 innings when it was pretty badly needed); Solarte (-0.148, 0/4); Maile (-0.141 with the Golden Sombrero). Donaldson (-0.130) has the number but that’s mostly due to ripping a ball so hard in turned into a double play, so he doesn’t get one.

Tomorrow, the Mother’s Day rubbermatch of the series will feature Drew Pomeranz against TBD, who should be Joe Biagini at 1:05 EDT.