BOSTON (AP) — Red Sox manager John Farrell’s top two relievers were wild in the same inning.
Russell Martin’s two-run single against Craig Kimbrel capped a four-run eighth, and the Blue Jays held to beat the Red Sox 4-3 Monday in Boston’s annual Patriots’ Day game.
“We missed the strike zone a little bit in that eighth inning,” Farrell said. “I’d say that’s maybe an understatement.”
Koji Uehara (0-1) was charged with four runs and gave up two walks while getting just one out. Kimbrel also gave up a walk.
“When you’re facing Uehara and those guys at the end, it’s tough to do,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said. “You see the end result. It was big.”
Clay Buchholz allowed six hits in 6 2/3 shutout innings, helped by four double plays by his infield and a diving catch by center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. Josh Rutledge and Washington C.H. native Travis Shaw had RBI doubles for the Red Sox.
“I don’t know,” he said of his first good start of the season. “Some days you do. Some days you don’t.”
Buchholz had allowed five runs in each of his first two starts.
J.A. Happ (2-0) gave up one run and four hits in seven-plus innings. Drew Storen got three outs for his first save despite allowing two runs. Toronto gained a split of the four-game series by winning the last two.
With Toronto trailing 1-0 in the eighth, Ezequiel Carrera reached second base against Uehara after Rutledge’s throwing error on his infield hit to third. He advanced on Christian Vazquez’s passed ball and scored on Michael Saunders’ groundout.
Kimbrel entered with one out and the bases loaded and struck out Edwin Encarnacion. He walked Troy Tulowitzki on a 3-2 pitch, forcing in the go-ahead run, and Martin singled.
Shaw scored in the ninth on Hanley Ramirez’s two-out, RBI single, and Storen struck out pinch-hitter David Ortiz, who took a 93 mph sinker with a 2-2 count for a called third strike.
With the crowd filing into Fenway Park a couple hours after the morning commute ended and helicopters flying above to track the 120th Boston Marathon, Buchholz threw the first pitch at 11:07 a.m. EDT on a warm morning under bright, sunny skies.
Boston took a 1-0 lead in the second on Rutledge’s double into the right-center gap.
Ortiz arrived at the park just after 8:30 a.m., came across Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, and the two chatted briefly at the Red Sox players’ parking lot.
