Toronto Blue Jays – PlayerWatch

David Ortiz and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit solo home runs, Eduardo Rodriguez pitched six solid innings and the Red Sox beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 Tuesday night for their third straight win.

After pitching into the seventh inning in his major league debut against the Rangers last Saturday, Blue Jays left-hander Matt Boyd failed to record an out in his start tonight against the Red Sox.

“Best offence in the game”, Smoak said afterwards. They took 3-of-4 from the Jays after winning 2-of-3 against the Rays and moved to within six games of the first-place Orioles and Yankees in the AL East. “I believe he deserves it after today”.

Encarnacion hit a three-run homer off Rick Porcello (4-9) in the first and Smoak added a two-run drive into the second deck in right.

TORONTO – The game may draw official censure on both sides of the border and will come with a NSFW rating on YouTube in the re-showing, but the Boston Red Sox could give two loonies about how it looked.

The Blue Jays responded by batting around in the bottom of the second and scoring four runs to cut the Red Sox’s lead in half. Mookie Betts, Brock Holt and Xander Bogaerts strung together singles to make it 1-0 before many fans had even found their seats.

David Ortiz’s first inning three run bomb to left off Matt Boyd was his 58th homer against Toronto in his career and 14th of 2015, though it was just his first blast off a lefty this season.

Jose Reyes hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, but Jose Bautista went hitless again and is 0 for 23 over his last seven. That blemish also came against the Boston Red Sox. “Pitches up in the strike zone against this team on a day when the ball is carrying as it was, that makes for a tough outing”. “I feel like coming off the bench pinch-hitting when I’ve gotten in there, I’ve done well. I know what’s going on”, said Porcello. “I’m throwing a lot of fat pitches”. Miley lost his lone appearance against the Blue Jays this season, giving up four runs and eight hits in six innings of a 7-0 defeat at Toronto on May 8. Following a one-out walk to Danny Valencia and a single to left by Kevin Pillar, rookie Devon Travis single to center and Valencia was waved home. Hanley Ramirez continued the onslaught with a home run of his own to push the score to 5-0. We write this after 81 games, halfway through the season and the Sox still seven games under.

“Granted, we’re not looking at the scoreboard every night but, at the same time, the way we had gone through the first 2 1/2 months of the season in the division, to go 5-2 was certainly timely, and we go back home with a little momentum”.

“It’s not easy”, Smoak said.

Boston has won eight of its last 12 games and pulled within six games of the top spot in the AL East. Toronto has lost two in a row following seven wins in 11 games, and sits one game off the pace in the division.

As bad nights go, the Toronto Blue Jays starter had one for the ages. Outfielder Melky Cabrera had been the most recent, doing it last season.

“He said he felt fine”, Gibbons said. “We did it the right way”.

“Wade turned in what I would consider a ‘blue-collar night, ‘ ” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. He walked Mike Napoli and Alejandro De Aza with the bases loaded in the first.

Boyd was optioned to Triple-A Buffalo following the game, while reliever Todd Redmond was designated for assignment.

Given the start at first base Wednesday in Toronto’s 11-2 win over the Boston Red Sox, he pushed his way into manager John Gibbons’ plans.