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Instant Reaction: Blue Jays win the series against the Red Sox with a 2-1 victory

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It may not have been pretty, but the Toronto Blue Jays have won their third consecutive game.

On Wednesday evening, the Blue Jays had an opportunity to win the series against the Boston Red Sox, defeating their American League East rivals 2-1 in 11 innings. They’ve now taken the first three games and will look for the sweep on Thursday, but let’s take a look at what happened in this game first!

 

Before the Red Sox even had an opportunity to bat, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Anthony Santander, and Andrés Giménez each reached with a single to load the bases. Will Wagner grounded out but drove in a run to make it 1-0. Unfortunately, that’s all they’d get as Alejandro Kirk hit a deep fly out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the first, Jarren Duran led off the inning with a single. He attempted to steal second, and Kirk threw the ball to Narnia trying to throw him out, allowing the Red Sox outfielder to go to third. After Rafael Devers struck out, Alex Bregman hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at one each.

The game stood that way for nine innings, leading us to the top of the 11th inning. With Ernie Clement at second, Nathan Lukes hit a ground out that moved him to third. Bo Bichette hit a sacrifice fly to score the run, and Nick Sandlin pitched a clean inning for the Blue Jays’ win.

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Takeaways…

The player of the game is undoubtedly Kevin Gausman. Toronto’s ace threw eight innings, allowing four hits, no earned runs, and striking out 10 to bring his season ERA to 2.33. His first two starts only saw Gausman strike out four, so this was a big game for him.

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Jeff Hoffman has been terrific as a Blue Jay. Coming in to start the ninth, he struck out three and intentionally walked a batter in two innings, great performance from him. Nick Sandlin picked up his second career save, striking out a batter and not even allowing the runner on second to move 90 feet. 

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Pitching was excellent, but their bats were freezing cold. $500 million man Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a good game, hitting three singles. Anthony Santander had a single as well, while Andrés Giménez had two singles. No one else had a hit.

Aside from the lack of home runs, the Jays only have six in 13 games, their biggest issue early this season has been hitting with runners in scoring position. The first inning saw the Jays have the bases loaded with one out, with the team only getting one run out of it. The top of the seventh saw the Jays have runners on first and second with no hits, just for Alejandro Kirk to hit into a double play. You can look at their last few series for other examples

Speaking of Kirk, that was a pretty brutal game for the catcher. He made good contact in his first at-bat, but airmailed the ball in the bottom half of the first inning, which led to the Red Sox’s only run. His aforementioned at-bat in the seventh inning was abysmal, and he failed to move the runner in the top of the 10th. He hasn’t had a good start to the season.

With that being said, the Blue Jays won the game and the series. They’ll get a chance to sweep the series on Thursday afternoon at 4:10 PM ET. Chris Bassitt is expected to start for the Jays, while Walker Buehler will start for the Red Sox.

Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.