Settle for staving off the sweep despite outscoring 12-11 in aggregate
Red Sox 1 at Blue Jays 6
On September 28, 1986, the Boston Red Sox hammered the Toronto Blue Jays 12-3 at Fenway, jumping all over a n undistinguished rookie starter by the name of Duane Ward to eliminate the Jays from postseason contention and clinch the division title on home soil. While the Jays certainly won’t be going to the postseason this year, just shy of 38 years later the Jays returned the favour in formally putting the nail in the Red Sox coffin with a 6-1 win primarily on the backs of three players.
The first of those was starter Kevin Gausman, who finished out 2024 once again looking like the ace of past seasons after the mediocre start to the year. With his fastball topping out in the mid 90s, misses almost all low just below the zone and change-up diving off the corner, he cruised through the first five innings. The only belishes were two outs runners in the second and fourth that he stranded.
While the bats were held in check by Richard Fitts for the first three innings, they finally broke through in the middle innings. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the third with a drive to right-centre, barely making it to second after admiring what he thought was a home run off the bat. Thee pitches later Alejandro Kirk clubbed the first of his three hits on the night into the left-centre gap break the goose egg.
Addison Barger advanced him to third, before he scored on Ernie Clement’s single. Kirk again came up big in the next inning, lining a two out, two run single after the first two reached and a bunt put runners at 2nd and 3rd with one out buy Vladdy popped out. That gave Gausman a comfortable 4-0 lead that came in handy in a labourious 6th inning that ended up his last of the year.
Jarren Duran led off with a double, then a walk before Triston Casas broke the goose egg with a single. Tyler O’Neill hit a hard ground ball to short, and Leo Jimenez made a great head’s up play on the turn to second, catching the runner between second and third for an unconventional double play. Another hard grounder should have ended the inning there and possibly allowed him a 7th inning, but Barger threw to second and his throw pulled Clement off the bag (and resulted in him twisting his ankle). Trevor Story walked to load up the bases and run up Gausman’s pitch count before he got a flyout to end the inning.
The third of the winning triumvirate after Gausman and Kirk was Jonathan Clase, who had three singles in this first three at-bats as he came up in the 7th with a runner on. He was impressive in battling Josh Winckowski before depositing his 7th pitch beyond the wall in right-centre for his first major league home run to essentially put the game on ice:
Brendon Little, Erik Swanson and Chad Green were all solid in throwing scoreless innings to take the game home.
Jays of the Day: Gausman (+.264 WPA), Kirk (+.178), Clase (+.122)
No anti-heroes tonight, though Barger (-.043) wasn’t terribly far off with the 0-fer and ill-advised throw to second that prolonged the 6th.
The Jays are off tomorrow before they welcome in the one team they have yet to face in the Miami Marlins to close out the 2024 season. Jose Berrios will look to finish out his season on the high note he’s been riding at 7:05 EDT.