Jays Swept out of Fenway

Ugly all the way around. It’s hard to remember that this team was hot five days ago, but five games of bad baseball and they failed to complete the sweep of the Mariners and then took a four game sweep themselves and now here they are. With the loss, the Jays are now fourth in the AL East and in a tie with the Angels, of all teams, for the last wildcard.

There was briefly hope in the top of the first. Bo Bichette hit a one out double off the monster, and Vlad Guerrero jr. hit a sinking liner that could have scored him easily if Jarren Duran hadn’t made a nice sliding catch.

Boston drew blood in the bottom half of the inning, though, and it was never stanched. Masataka Yoshida hit his sixth home run to make it 1-0. Remember when the consensus this winter was that the Sox overpaid him? He’s also hitting .317.

Boston chipped away in the second, with a Triston Casas single, an Enmanuel Valdez walk, a Reese McGuire single, a single from Yoshida, a Justin Turner single, a Rafael Devers double, and a Jarren Duran single adding up to six runs.

At this point it was pretty much over. Kevin Gausman stayed in and attempted to mop up, but in the end only made it 3.1 innings, allowing 8 runs on 8 hits and a walk (with some help from an inherited runner allowed to score by Tim Mayza). Gausman has been the only really reliable starter this team has had, and today he just wasn’t on. That’s concerning, and the Jays will have to hope it’s a blip if they want to stay in the hunt.

Meanwhile, on offence, Guerrero did get them on the board with a solo shot in the top of the fourth. If there’s a silver lining to this series, it’s that he’s broken out of a mini slump with seven hits, two homers and two doubles in the past four games.

The Jays made their attempt at a run in the fourth. Kevin Kiermaier walked and George Springer reached on an error. Bichette singled, Guerrero added a double, and Daulton Varsho hit a sac fly to plate 3, making it 8-4.

It proved to be too little too late, though, and Boston would add three insurance runs off Zach Pop (who left tue game after recording two outs with what is being called hamstring discomfort). That put the comeback comeback completely out of reach.

Jays of the Day: No.

Suckage: Gausman (-.347) soaked up all the negative WPA, but Chapman, Kirk, Jansen, Kiermaier and Pop all deserve it too.

Thankfully, that was the end of this series. We don’t see the accursed bog of Fenway again until August. Things don’t get any easier in the meantime, though, as the team heads to Pittsburgh for a three game set with the inexplicably 20-12 Pirates. Chris Bassitt (3-2, 5.18) takes on Rich Hill (3-2, 4.18, social security eligible) in the opener, with first pitch scheduled for 6:35pm ET.