Alex Verdugo’s ninth-inning bomb leads Red Sox to sweep over Blue Jays

Things worth mentioning…

• If there was one game you’d have thought the Blue Jays were going to win in this series, it was this one. The Blue Jays sent ace Kevin Gausman to the mound while Boston countered a bullpen day. Gausman didn’t have his best stuff but he managed to work through five innings while allowing only two earned runs. His final line was two runs on five hits and one walk with seven strikeouts over five.
• Two of Toronto’s four runs came on solo homers from Brandon Belt. He hit one in the first inning off of Garrett Whitlock and then another in the sixth off of Nick Pivetta. Belt’s last home run before the two today came all the way back on June 7 when the Blue Jays were playing the Astros.
• The two Belt homers were the only extra-base hits the Blue Jays had all day. Their other two runs came in the third inning when Kevin Kiermaier and George Springer hit back-to-back singles and pulled off a double steal and Bo Bichette drove them in. Bichette was thrown out at second base on the single and Belt came up next and struck out to end the inning.
• The bullpen had to try to find a way to make it through four innings after Gausman was pulled and they looked like a group that had run out of gas. Tim Mayza got one out but allowed two hits and Yimi Garcia worked around a walk to get out of the inning. Erik Swanson came in for the seventh and allowed two runs, Trevor Richards tossed a clean eighth, and then Alex Verdugo smashed a solo home run off of Jordan Romano to put the Red Sox on top.
• The Blue Jays will have a much-needed day off on Monday and then they’ll hit the road to play the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers before the All-Star break.

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO