Music: {allcanada} Alvarez, Jays stung by surging Red Sox

Friday, June 1, 2012

{allcanada} Alvarez, Jays stung by surging Red Sox

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TORONTO -- For the second straight game, the Toronto Blue Jays seemed to have gotten lucky when a comebacker off one of their starting pitcher's shins didn't do too much damage.

The similarities ended there between Brandon Morrow, Wednesday's winner in a 4-1 triumph over the Baltimore Orioles, and Henderson Alvarez, the loser in Friday's 7-2 thumping from the Boston Red Sox.

Riding high after a bounce-back sweep against the falling-back-to-Earth Orioles, the Blue Jays (27-25) fell back into recent patterns against the surging Red Sox (27-25), who have righted themselves after a dismal start with wins in 15 of their past 21 contests.

Since Aug. 24, 2008, Boston has won 41 of 66 meetings versus Toronto, while Clay Buchholz (5-2) won his sixth straight Rogers Centre start before a crowd of 29,678. In eight career outings at the dome, his earned-run average is 1.72 (52.1 innings/10 runs).

The best news for the Blue Jays was that Alvarez (3-5), better but still with room for improvement after a pair of rough starts, was able to shake off the Mike Aviles comebacker that struck his left shin to open the fifth, and pitch into the seventh inning.

It looked worrisome at first, as he whipped his glove to the field in disgust. But as the sting wore off, he kept on, leaving down 3-1 with one out and one on in the seventh, when the Red Sox put things away against reliever Luis Perez.

Morrow, meanwhile, seems to be fine after getting struck on the right shin by Wilson Betemit's liner Wednesday, a blow that forced him from the contest. Right now the right-hander is expected to make his next scheduled start Wednesday at Chicago, although the test comes with his bullpen Sunday.

THE BIG PICTURE: The loss evened the season-series between the clubs at two games apiece, but more importantly, pulled the Red Sox into a tie for fourth place in the American League East with the Blue Jays. They'll send Kyle Drabek (4-5, 5.55) to the mound Saturday against Felix Doubront (5-2, 3.86).

THE PITCHING: Alvarez allowed eight hits and a walk over 6.1 innings, getting charged with four runs, all earned. He was hit harder in losses to the Mets on May 20 (six runs on nine hits in five innings) and May 26 at Texas (five runs, four earned, on nine hits in 5.2 innings), so this performance marked some small progress.

David Ortiz opened the scoring with a solo shot against him, an RBI single by Adrian Gonzalez in the third made it 2-0 while a run-scoring fielder's choice by Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the sixth gave the Red Sox a 3-1 edge.

Perez relieved in the seventh but allowed the Ryan Sweeney double he inherited to come around on Scott Podsednik's infield single, and then let things get away when Daniel Nava ripped an RBI double and Gonzalez and Ortiz added run-scoring singles.

THE OFFENCE: Yunel Escobar's solo shot in the third offered some hope for the Blue Jays against Buchholz, but they managed precious little else against him. A pivotal frame was the fifth, when David Cooper and Rajai Davis reached to open the frame but Kelly Johnson promptly struck out ahead of an Escobar double play that snuffed the rally.

Buchholz allowed six hits and two walks over eight innings, giving up two runs, the other on a Cooper solo blast in the seventh.

RUN AT YOUR OWN PERIL: Blue Jays right-fielder Jose Bautista put on a display with his throwing arm, first sending a strong relay to Escobar at second base and watching the shortstop relay to first to catch Ortiz straying too far around the bag after a drive to the wall, and in the ninth cutting down Nick Punto at second after a drive to the corner.

Bautista also earned some negative attention from home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski in the third after he slammed his bat down after swinging at strike three.

HONOURED: Bautista was named Blue Jays player of the month for May in voting by the Toronto chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America. He hit nine home runs with 22 RBIs in the month, driving in a run in 16 of the team's 28 games.