For seven innings, this was a quiet game decided by one swing. Then the eighth inning arrived, and the Red Sox turned a tight lead into a rout. Boston beat Toronto 7-0 at Rogers Centre, with Payton Tolle setting the tone on the mound and Caleb Durbin delivering the blow that changed everything.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
| TOR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
Tolle was in complete control from the start. Working into the eighth inning, he allowed just 2 hits and 0 runs while striking out 4 and walking 2 over 8.0 innings. He needed only 91 pitches to get through his outing, and the Blue Jays never found an answer against him. The win improved Tolle to 8-6 on the season, and he now carries a 2.97 ERA.
Boston opened the scoring in the first inning when Contreras doubled to right and Abreu scored, a play that gave the Red Sox a lead they would never relinquish. The game stayed 1-0 into the eighth, when Durbin turned a workable advantage into a rout. Durbin homered to left, a 384-foot shot that brought home Rafaela, Abreu and Yoshida to make it 5-0. Boston wasn't finished. In the ninth, Yoshida's sacrifice fly to center scored Sogard, and Durbin added another run with a single to left that brought home Rafaela, capping a 7-0 final.
Max Scherzer took the loss for Toronto despite a respectable line: 5.0 innings, 3 hits, 1 run allowed on 4 strikeouts and 2 walks. The Blue Jays' bullpen could not hold the line after Scherzer departed, surrendering 6 runs over 4.0 innings as Boston's eighth-inning outburst put the game away. Toronto managed only 2 hits all night and finished with a costly error, unable to generate any offense against Tolle.
The win, Boston's first after a previous setback, moved the Red Sox to 65-56. Toronto fell to 59-64, losing for the first time after their prior game. Scherzer, meanwhile, sits 500 games played, needing 7 more to reach the mark.