In August, you’ll take wins any way you can get them, even if they’re not the prettiest!

The Toronto Blue Jays swept the Boston Red Sox with a 6-5 win tonight, in a game that featured both teams spoiling opportunities to put the game away. Every time one side took the lead, they would let the other side back into it. For context, tonight’s game featured five lead changes and 25 runners left on base between the two teams.

For the second straight night, the game would go into extra innings, and again, it was George Springer with the tie-breaking RBI. With Cavan Biggio at third base in the 10th inning, John Schneider put the contact play on with Springer at the plate. Springer grounded a ball to Xander Bogaerts at shortstop, and Biggio took off as soon as the ball was hit. Biggio slid under the tag at the plate, and the Blue Jays took the lead for good.

Both teams swapped punches in the early innings of the game, as starters Kevin Gausman and Kutter Crawford could never establish a rhythm.

Bo Bichette got the Blue Jays on the board in the first inning with a two-run double to right field. The ball fell just shy of the short wall in right, and with runners on the corners, the ball luckily deflected off the wall and stayed in play so that both runners could score.

After a three-up, three down inning for Gausman in the 1st, Boston evened things up at 2 in the bottom of the second off of two RBI singles from our old buddy Reese McGuire and Bobby Dalbec.

Boston tacked on another run in the 3rd, putting them ahead 3-2, but Toronto answered with a strong two-out rally in the 4th. Back-to-back singles from Santiago Espinal and Danny Jansen, followed by a walk from George Springer set the stage for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with the bases loaded. Guerrero answered the call, as he smacked a two-run single the other way to put Toronto back in front 4-3.

Jansen put the Blue Jays back ahead 5-4 with his 10th home run of the season. It was Jansen’s first home run since July 22nd, also at Fenway Park.

However, Boston would even things up in the bottom half of the 6th, as a Bo Bichette error led to a quick trip around the bases for Bobby Dalbec. Trevor Richards struck out the first two batters of the inning, and got Dalbec to hit a grounder right to Bichette. In what should’ve been a routine third out, Bichette short hopped the throw, and Vladdy was unable to pick it. Dalbec advanced to second on the error, and also advanced to third on a wild pitch from Richards. Jarren Duran doubled off of Richards to drive Dalbec home, and in frustrating fashion, the game was tied again. The error was Bichette’s 15th of the season, tying him with Baltimore’s Jorge Mateo for third in the MLB.

Adding to the storyline of no one really wanting to win this game, McGuire would lead off the bottom of the 8th with a triple. It started out as a mere base hit to right field, but Teoscar Hernandez misplayed the ball, allowing it to roll all the way to the wall. Hernandez simply waved his glove at the ball without stopping it, and McGuire took two extra bases.

However, Adam Cimber and Tim Mayza came in and stranded the runner with some stellar high-leverage work. Cimber struck out two, but Mayza’s out was far more dramatic. Rafael Devers grounded a ball sharply to first, off the glove of Guerrero, but Cavan Biggio backed him up and threw Devers out at first.

Want more drama? Boston loaded the bases with no one out in the 9th inning against Jordan Romano. Romano struck out Franchy Cordero, setting up a potential opportunity to get out of the inning with a double play. Well, that’s just what they got, as Kike Hernandez grounded a ball to surehanded Matt Chapman who completed a 5-3 double play, and the Blue Jays escaped again.

It was at this point that Toronto must’ve realized, “Hm, Boston must really not want to win this game!” And they’d be correct! The Blue Jays would score the aforementioned run the 10th, and Romano would close the game by retiring Boston in order in the 10th for a huge six out performance. Romano and the rest of the bullpen were fabulous in their five innings of work, and another spectacular game was played by Matt Chapman at third base, further adding to his resume for another Gold Glove season.

The Blue Jays complete a 6-1 road trip, and now come home to face a couple lowly opponents in the Angels and the Cubs. Mitch White starts tomorrow night’s series opener versus Los Angeles against Reid Detmers.