BOSTON — Instant reactions as the Red Sox (6-7) lose in 11 innings, 2-1, on a night when the offense couldn’t get anything going against Kevin Gausman and the Blue Jays:
1) On a chilly evening when offense was at a premium, the Blue Jays simply played better small ball than the Sox in extras. After the sides each went scoreless in the 10th, the Jays manufactured the game-winner when ghost runner Ernie Clement advanced to third on a grounder, then scored on a Bo Bichette sacrifice fly off Josh Winckowski. Sidewinder Nick Sandlin then set Boston down in order in the bottom of the 11th, stranding Kristian Campbell at second.
The Sox fell to 1-1 in extras this season. They had only four hits all night and struck out 14 times. That’s not really a recipe for offensive success.
Since an 18-run outburst on Sunday night against St. Louis, the bats have hit the wall — hard — against Toronto. Through three games, the Sox have scored just four times.
“A lot of strikeouts. (Gausman) elevated the fastball and we couldn’t catch up,” said manager Alex Cora.
“We’ve just got to make adjustments. We have to, as a group. But we trust our players, we trust our group. Just one bad night.”
2) Tanner Houck bounced back nicely from a rough two starts to begin the year. He worked around what seemed like constant traffic to exit after 6 ⅔ innings having allowed just one run on five hits. Again, the strikeouts weren’t there (just two) but Houck induced enough soft contact to keep the Jays at bay.
Houck’s night started with a bases-loaded, one-out chance for the Jays, who opened the scoring on a Will Wagner RBI groundout. From there, Houck settled in and largely dominated. It was his first quality start since August 30.
3) The Red Sox bullpen once again did its job. Justin Wilson got out of a seventh-inning jam with one pitch, Justin Slaten needed just eight pitches in a scoreless eighth and Aroldis Chapman reached back and hit 101 mph in a scoreless ninth, working around Guerrero’s third single of the night. Then, Greg Weissert went popout-groundout-flyout in the 10th to strand the ghost runner at second. Winckowski was tagged with a loss despite retiring all three batters he faced.
4) It sure feels like Gausman has dominated the Red Sox whenever he has faced them at Fenway as a member of the Blue Jays. He was excellent Wednesday, recording the 26th 10-strikeout game of his career. In total, he went eight innings, allowing an unearned run on four hits while striking out 10.
5) Jarren Duran’s game-changing speed was on display in the first — an inning in which the Red Sox scored despite following a leadoff single with three straight outs. Duran singled, then stole second and advanced to third on a very wild throw by catcher Alejandro Kirk. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Alex Bregman. An inning that went single, strikeout, flyout, flyout resulted in a game-tying run.
6) Houck’s pitch count — and the Red Sox — benefited from two unorthodox double plays. In the fourth, Houck issued a leadoff walk to Andres Giménez, but got Will Wagner to line out to right field with Giménez in motion, allowing Wilyer Abreu to easily double him off first. Two innings later, $500 million man Vlad Guerrero Jr. laced a one-out single before Anthony Santander hit a rocket to Triston Casas at first and Casas stepped on the bag for the inning-ender.
Houck got a key twin-killing in normal fashion in the seventh when he got Kirk to ground into a 4-6-3 after a single and a walk led off the inning. Boston has now turned 20 double plays through 13 games, which is by far the league lead.
7) Kristian Campbell has now reached base safely in all 12 games he has played to start his career. He kept that streak alive with an eighth-inning single after striking out looking twice to start his night.
8) The Red Sox swung freely all night. There were a lot of first-pitch outs and a couple non-competitive offensive innings (a 5-pitch seventh and a 5-pitch ninth).
9) Thursday’s series finale brings what feels like an important early-season start for newcomer Walker Buehler (1-1, 8.68 ERA), who has struggled in two outings with the Red Sox. The Blue Jays will go with righty Chris Bassitt (1-0, 0.71 ERA) with an first pitch scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET. Boston will avoid trying to be swept for the first time in 2025.
The Red Sox will then travel to Chicago late Thursday ahead of a three-game series with the White Sox to start their second road trip of the year.
