Music: {allcanada} BAUTISTA BACKS DICKEY AS BLUE JAYS EARN WIN OVER RED SOX

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

{allcanada} BAUTISTA BACKS DICKEY AS BLUE JAYS EARN WIN OVER RED SOX

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TORONTO -- Forced to go swing-for-swing with the Boston Red Sox, the Toronto Blue Jays proved more than up to the challenge.

After David Ortiz made yet another impact on the series with a three-run home run, the Blue Jays bounced right back and eventually poured on the offence to beat the Red Sox 6-4 on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre.

Jose Bautista had two RBI, one each on a double and a home run, to lead the charge. Jose Reyes, Josh Thole and Ryan Goins chipped in by driving in a run each.

Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey (8-10) survived a rocky start to get the victory. Dickey allowed four earned runs on nine hits in six innings of work.

Top prospect Aaron Sanchez made short work of the heart of the Boston order in his major league debut, getting Dustin Pedroia, Ortiz and Mike Napoli to each fly out in the seventh. In the eighth he set Daniel Nava (strikeout), Xander Bogaerts (groundout) and Stephen Drew (strikeout) down in order

Clay Buchholz (5-6) gave up five runs -- four earned -- on six hits in his six innings and was saddled with the loss.

Things started out dreadfully for Dickey, who gave up singles to the first two batters he faced in Shane Victorino and Pedroia. Then Ortiz slammed a 3-1 pitch 434 feet into the Level of Excellence in right field to give the Red Sox (47-54) an early 3-0 lead.

With the homer, his fourth of the series, Ortiz moved into the Rogers Centre record books. It was his 37th home run in his 107th game in the stadium formerly known as SkyDome, good for first all-time, passing Alex Rodriguez.

As rough a first inning as Dickey had giving up his 37th home run at home in Toronto, Buchholz didn't fare much better in his half of the inning.

A leadoff single by Reyes and a walk paved the way for Bautista's RBI double. Even after Melky Cabrera ran into an out trying to get home on a grounder, the Blue Jays (53-49) tied the score on a groundout by Colby Rasmus and then an RBI double by Thole.

During that first inning, a bouncer off the turf hit Buchholz in the face when he couldn't get his glove up in time. After being checked out by training staff, the right-hander remained in the game.

Dickey and Buchholz put up zeros all the way until the fifth inning, when the Red Sox broke through with a two-out rally. Back-to-back doubles by Nava and Bogaerts gave the Red Sox a 4-3 lead.

Goins drove in Thole with a triple to right-centre to tie the score back up in the sixth. The Blue Jays caught a break on a throwing era by Bogaerts on what would have been an inning-ending groundout by Reyes, but the third baseman's throw was just out of Napoli's reach and Goins scored to make it 5-4 Toronto.

In the middle of Sanchez's impressive two-inning debut, Bautista hit his 18th home run of the season off Red Sox reliever Andrew Miller to add an insurance run.

Closer Casey Janssen, who struggled Tuesday night in a non-save situation, was flawless in picking up his 15th of the season.

Notes -- Blue Jays left-hander Mark Buehrle was honoured on the centre-field video screen on the fifth anniversary of his perfect game, which came as a member of the Chicago White Sox. ... Ortiz became the 14th-fastest player to reach the 1,500-RBI mark since the stat became official in 1920, doing so in his 2,067th game.

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