David Ortiz's winning blast caps slugfest in Toronto
Red Sox extend AL East lead to 2 games over Blue Jays
Dropping two of three games to the Boston Red Sox in Toronto is not what the Blue Jays wanted.
But Troy Tulowitzki and his teammates say the American League East pennant race is far from over. He hit a grand slam and Edwin Encarnacion added two home runs on Sunday as Toronto dropped the rubber match of their three-game series to Boston 11-8.
The loss puts the Blue Jays into a tie with the Baltimore Orioles for second in the AL East, two games back of the Red Sox.
Toronto had been in first as recently as Sept. 6, but has lost seven of its past 10 games to tumble down the standings. At the same time, Boston has won seven of its past 10 and Baltimore six of its past 10, including a 3-1 win over Detroit on Sunday.
"There's still a lot of time left. What, 20 games left? There's a lot of time," said Tulowitzki, who noted the Blue Jays final regular-season series will be in Boston. "A lot of things can happen. I think we've been jockeying for position the whole year, just right now we're two games back.
"We would've liked to have won the series but, unfortunately, we didn't. We'll move on."
Sanchez roughed up
Jackie Bradley Jr., David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez homered as Boston's big bats dominated the game. Clay Buchholz (6-10) threw just three innings, giving up six runs before making way for the Red Sox (80-62) bullpen. Heath Hembree, Noe Ramirez, Robbie Ross Jr., Brad Ziegler, Fernando Abad, Matt Barnes, Koji Uehera and Craig Kimbrel all came on in relief.
Hembree allowed two runs, while Ross (3-2) earned the win.
Starter Aaron Sanchez gave up six runs over 3 2/3 innings of work, striking out two for Toronto (78-64). Brett Cecil, Joe Biagini, Aaron Loup, Bo Schultz, Joaquin Benoit, Danny Barnes, Matt Dermody and Ryan Tepera all combined for 5 1/3 innings, giving up a combined five runs.
Schultz was charged with the loss, his first of the season.
"There's a lot of in-division games left with a lot of teams in this division, not only with us, but with the four other teams playing each other that can help us out. We understand what we've got to do," said Sanchez.
Encarnacion hit his first home run in the first inning, a solo shot over the left-centre field wall to tie it 1-1. Bradley responded with a three-run homer the next inning, driving in Brock Holt and Sandy Leon.
.<a href="https://twitter.com/Encadwin">@Encadwin</a> don’t need no stinkin’ glasses! <a href="https://twitter.com/budcanada">@budcanada</a> <a href="https://t.co/mPEaTSDuUm">https://t.co/mPEaTSDuUm</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/OurMoment?src=hash">#OurMoment</a> <a href="https://t.co/4hl9JNAAEj">pic.twitter.com/4hl9JNAAEj</a>
—@BlueJaysBuchholz walked Russell Martin with the bases loaded to bring home Donaldson and cut Boston's lead to 4-2. On the next pitch, Tulowitzki blasted a no-doubt home run over the left-field wall, bringing the 47,816 in attendance at Rogers Centre to their feet with chants of "TU-LO!" and giving Toronto its first lead of the game, 6-4.
Apparently, that hit was also Tulowitzki's first extra-base hit vs. Boston since joining the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BlueJays?src=hash">#BlueJays</a>. Not a bad time to do it.
—@AlykhanKRTroy Tulowitzki’s last grand slam? Sept. 15, 2008, vs. Wade LeBlanc at Coors Field.
—@jonmorosiXander Bogaerts tied it 6-6 for Boston with a single in the fourth, scoring Bradley and Dustin Pedroia.
Encarnacion crushed his second homer of the day in the home half of the fourth, a two-run blast for an 8-6 Toronto lead. Ramirez replied in the next inning, with his homer making it 8-7. Ortiz then smashed a two-run shot to deep right field to make it 10-8 in the sixth.