The Toronto Blue Jays pounded out 16 hits and bolted to an early 6-0 lead on Sunday afternoon, and finished off a three game sweep of the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park with a convincing 13-1 win.
With no score in the top third inning with Brandon Belt at first base and two outs for Toronto, George Springer extended the at-bat for his team when he lofted a fly ball into right centerfield. Jarren Duran had a beat on it and a play but couldn’t corral it, and the ball bounced into the bullpen for a groundrule double. Matt Chapman made that hurt when he followed and doubled off the green monster to make it 2-0 Blue Jays. Cavan Biggio doubled in Chapman, and after a walk to Alejandro Kirk, Kevin Kiermaier slapped a groundball RBI single to left. The lead was extended to 6-0 on a two-run homerun by Davis Schneider in the fourth. Schneider, who was just called up prior to this series from Triple A, also homered in his first MLB at-bat on Friday night and has set a Toronto record by recording the most hits in his first three games (9). Triston Casas got Boston on the scoreboard for the only time on the afternoon with a solo homer off Chris Bassitt to right centerfield to lead off the last of the fourth, the 17th of the season for the rookie. The visiting Blue Jays put it away scoring five more times in the fifth inning, led by RBI singles by Kiermaier and Chapman. They also added RBI sacrifice outs by Whit Merrifield along with Springer, and Schneider was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Chris Murphy (1-1) took the loss on the hill for Boston in a bullpen game for the Sox. Alex Verdugo had three hits, a day after being benched by manager Alex Cora for showing up to the ballpark late. Schneider had four hits and four RBI in the victory for Toronto (63-50). Schneider became the first player ever with nine hits and two homeruns in his first three games, and the nine hits tied a modern day record dating back to 1901. Belt, Springer, Chapman, and Kiermaier had two hits a piece. Chapman had three RBI and Kiermaier added two. Bassitt (11-6) tossed 7.0 innings to pick the win, and allowed one run on seven hits with three walks and six strikeouts. Boston (57-54), losers of seven of their last eight games, has now dropped to five games out of the final American League wildcard playoff spot. The Sox begin a four game home series with the Kansas City Royals (36-77) on Monday night. Right hander Brayan Bello (8-6, 3.79) takes the ball in the opener at 7:10 p.m., to be opposed by lefty Cole Ragans (3-3, 4.33) for the Royals.
Story by Chris Lessner
