Red Sox Lose Second Straight to Jays

By Jeff Christenbury in Red Sox ⋅ April 5, 2008 at 5:27pm ⋅ Post a comment

The Red Sox (3-3) scored first and held a 2-1 lead in the fourth, but Clay Buchholz and the bullpen faltered from there and the Blue Jays (3-2) scored a 10-2 blowout win over the Sox.

Manny Ramirez doubled home David Ortiz in the first and Sean Casey drove in J.D. Drew in the fourth, but the Jays busted out 11 hits and six different players had RBIs. Casey’s throwing error in the fourth allowed two runs to score and the Jays never looked back from their 3-2 lead.

In his first start of the season, Buchholz pitched five innings, allowing six hits, four runs (three of which were earned), struck out seven and walked two. The bullpen really let the Blue Jay offense blow the door open as Kyle Snyder allowed two runs in a third of an inning and Bryan Corey allowed four in just a third of an inning.

The three game series wraps up tomorrow with a 1pm game at Rogers Center as the Jays go for the three game sweep.

My Take: I think this is what we’re going to see in Buchholz for the first few weeks of the season. He will get his strikeouts and won’t walk too many people, but as he feels out his new body (and he is noticeably bigger), there will be growing pains along the way – no pun intended.

Many picked the Blue Jays to win the division this year as a surprise. I don’t see it happening, but the offense led by Alex Rios looks pretty scary, especially with the Frank Thomas hitting well.

Tomorrow’s pitching match-up is – as the English say – “rather tasty” as Josh Beckett makes his 2008 regular season debut against Roy Halladay.

Tags: Clay Buchholz, J.D. Drew, Kyle Snyder, Manny Ramirez, Sean Casey, Toronto Blue Jays