Boston had no answer, not for the bats and not for the arm across from them. Dylan Cease worked all nine innings without allowing a run, and by the third inning the Red Sox were already chasing a five-run deficit they never threatened to close. The Blue Jays won 6-0.

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Cease was the story from the mound. He allowed just 1 hit over 9.0 innings, struck out 12, walked 3 and threw 120 pitches in a complete-game shutout. It was his seventh win of the season, lifting his record to 7-5 with a 2.46 ERA. He needed only one real cushion, and his offense gave him five in a single inning.

Toronto's third inning did the damage. Nathan Lukes scored on a single to left by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. that put the Blue Jays ahead 1-0 and proved to be the game's decisive shift in momentum. George Springer followed with a three-run homer to left, a 366-foot shot that brought home Guerrero Jr. and Okamoto and made it 4-0. Ernie Clement added a double to left that scored Varsho, extending the inning's damage to five runs and putting Toronto in firm control at 5-0. The Blue Jays tacked on one more in the ninth when Guerrero Jr. reached on an infield single to second, scoring Giménez to make it 6-0.

Sonny Gray had no such luck. The Red Sox starter allowed 5 runs on 10 hits over 5.0 innings, walking none and striking out 3, and took the loss to fall to 12-2. Boston's bullpen covered the final four innings and allowed just 1 run, but the offense could not generate anything against Cease, finishing with a single hit on the night.

Guerrero Jr. finished 3-for-4 with 2 RBI, and Springer drove in 3 runs on a 2-for-5 night that included his home run. Clement went 3-for-4 with a double and an RBI. The win pushed Toronto to 48-57 and snapped a stretch of frustration with a fresh W1 mark, while Boston fell to 53-50, dropping its first game after the setback (L1).

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