Music: {allcanada} Morrow walks 8 as Jays lose lead against Red Sox

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TORONTO — A.J. Pierzynski hit his eighth career grand slam Saturday to power the Boston Red Sox to a 7-6 win over Toronto as the Blue Jays wasted another lead and saw another pitcher go up in flames on the mound.

The Jays staged a nail-biting late comeback, sending eight men to the plate and scoring twice in the eighth before leaving the bases loaded. Jose Bautista, facing closer Koji Uehara, then opened the ninth with his seventh homer of the year to cut the lead to 7-6.

Dioner Navarro and Brett Lawrie singled, around a Colby Rasmus strikeout, to keep the drive alive. But Edwin Encarnacion flied out to end the rally and give Uehara his fifth save.

It was the fourth straight home loss for Toronto, a stretch during which the team has given up 36 runs on 47 hits and 22 walks. The Jays have allowed their opponents off the hook in three of those games, with the Orioles staging comebacks Wednesday and Thursday.

Right-hander Brandon Morrow (1-2) authored the Jays’ latest chapter of pitching woes despite not giving up a hit in a bizarre outing before an announced crowd of 40,322 under the roof at the Rogers Centre.

Red Sox starter Clay Buchholz (1-2) survived a three-run first inning to help Boston to its seventh win in 11 games. He gave up three runs in seven innings on six hits, three strikeouts and two walks. Buchholz threw 105 pitches, 67 for strikes.

Juan Francisco homered for Toronto, his second blast in as many days, to greet Boston reliever Junichi Tazawa in the eighth. Pinch-hitter Encarnacion then singled home Navarro to make it 7-5 as Tazawa gave up his first runs of the season.

Chris Capuano, who also had not given up a run, came on with men on first and third and one out. He struck out Jonathan Diaz but walked Jose Reyes after a 10-pitch showdown to load the bases.

Uehara then induced Cabrera to pop up to shallow left field.

On a strange day, Toronto outhit Boston 13-5 and lost thanks to early pitching problems.

Morrow came into the game not having worked more than six innings in any of his four previous starts this season. And he quickly sank into another pitching mire, walking a career-high eight of the 14 batters he faced before being pulled after 2 2/3 shocking innings.

Twice he was rescued by double plays before the bottom fell out in a six-run Boston third that saw Toronto pitching coach Pete Walker ejected, presumably for back-chat to home-plate umpire Jeff Kellogg.

The first walk of the afternoon, to Red Sox leadoff batter Dustin Pedroia, was the 100th Jays’ free pass this season. Toronto pitchers issued nine walks on the day, with David Ortiz the recipient of three.

Only five of Morrow’s 14 pitches in the first were strikes. He was 11-for-31 after two innings and 25-for-66 when he was removed in favour of Chad Jenkins in the third.

Morrow would’ve been living only marginally more dangerously if he was juggling chainsaws on the mound.

With two out in the third Morrow walked four straight and was removed, with the Jays somewhat amazingly still leading 3-1.

Two balls later, Pierzynski slammed the grand slam homer off the newly recalled Jenkins, who promptly gave up a solo shot to Will Middlebrooks for a 6-3 Boston lead. It was the second homer of the season for both.

Morrow’s outing marked the 11th time a Jays pitcher has given up eight or more walks in a game. The club record is nine, by four different pitchers (Pat Hengten, Jim Clancy, Chris Carpenter and Jesse Jefferson).

Consecutive doubles by Mike Carp and Grady Sizemore in the fifth extended the Boston lead to 7-3 and chased Jenkins in favour of Aaron Loup.

Buchholz also had trouble finding the strike zone in the first and paid for it after issuing a leadoff walk to Reyes. The Jays shortstop was running on Cabrera’s single and came home on Bautista’s deep single to left-centre. Cabrera scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0 with no outs. Bautista came home on Dioner Navarro’s deep single to right to make it 3-0.

The Red Sox starter threw 26 pitches in the first, with just 13 for strikes. He faced just three batters in the second but needed a successful challenge to remove Reyes, who had been called safe on an infield hit.

Buchholz walked two with two out in the third but escaped damage and ended up blanking the Jays for six straight innings.

He had gone winless in his first four starts for the first time of his career. But, despite the rocky opening the trip to Toronto proved to be a tonic for the 29-year-old right-hander.

Buchholz arrived with a 9-5 career mark and 2.44 earned-run average against Toronto and was 7-2 with a 1.09 ERA in 10 starts at the Rogers Centre.

He had never allowed more than three earned runs in those previous Rogers Centre starts.

Toronto used six pitchers, with Loup, Brett Cecil, Steve Delabar and Sergio Santos helping douse the fire set by Morrow and Jenkins.

NOTES: Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, on his bobblehead day, is scheduled to pitch Sunday against Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester in the series finale … Jays infielder Jonathan Diaz, who saw action briefly with Boston last season, collected his World Series ring Saturday.

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