Red Sox, Jays set for rubber match (Apr 26, 2018)
TORONTO -- The Boston Red Sox have been winning for the most part this season, and they fixed the only glitch to their superb start Wednesday night by defeating the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3.
The victory ended the Red Sox's three-game losing streak, and they will play the rubber match with the Blue Jays Thursday night at the Rogers Centre.
Boston (18-5) will start left-hander Chris Sale (1-1, 1.86 ERA) in the series finale and Toronto (14-9) will start right-hander Marco Estrada (2-1, 5.32 ERA).
The Red Sox were powered by an expected source to even the series at 1-1, right fielder Mookie Betts.
Betts led off with a home run in the first inning -- his franchise-record 14th career leadoff homer and his third of the season -- and added a two-run shot in the seventh to put Boston back into the lead on Wednesday. Betts has eight home runs and 17 RBIs in 20 games this season.
"He's at the top of the game, he can beat you so many ways," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He'll be one of those guys who will be in the MVP running every year, I would have to believe. He can beat you, too, with his glove."
"Right away he hits it out of the ball park and you start thinking 'special night for him,'" Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "I'm glad he's on my team."
Betts had some compliments of his own for the Blue Jays.
"That's a good team over there so we know we've got to battle all nine, which they showed and which we did," Betts said.
After a hot start offensively, the Red Sox have scored eight runs over their past four games.
"It's pretty cool to get a lead finally," Betts said. "Today we had some opportunities to score more runs and we didn't push some of those across. We know we're not going to score six every game and we're not going get 15 hits every day, but it's important for us to win close games like this, along with the high-scoring ones."
The Red Sox are 6-1 in one-run games and are 12-3 against American League East opponents, while the Blue Jays are 3-2 in one-run games and 6-7 against AL East teams. Boston has won nine of its past 11 games at the Rogers Centre.
Brock Holt continued to swing the bat well for the Red Sox on Wednesday, going 3-for-4 with an RBI double to extend hitting streak to eight games, his longest since he had a nine-game streak July 1-20, 2016. On his current streak, he is batting .455 (15-for-33) with five doubles, one homer and six RBIs. He has reached base safely in all 13 of his starts this season.
Yangervis Solarte hit his sixth homer of the season in 21 games for the Blue Jays. Last season, he did not hit his sixth homer until his 64th game.
The Red Sox appear to have the advantage going into Thursday's game. Sale likes pitching at the Rogers Centre, going 4-1 with a 0.96 ERA in seven career games (six starts) there. He is 6-3 with a 2.03 ERA in 12 career games (nine starts) against the Blue Jays overall and was 2-1 with a 1.67 ERA in four starts against them last season. His 43 strikeouts against the Blue Jays last season were the second-highest total ever against them by a Red Sox pitcher. Hideo Nomo had 46 in 2001.
Estrada is 4-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 14 career games (12 starts) against the Red Sox. He was 0-1 with a 4.12 ERA in four starts against them last season.
