TORONTO - The Boston Red Sox punished R.A. Dickey's knuckleball en route to an 8-4 win Saturday afternoon as the Toronto Blue Jays wasted a two-homer performance by Jose Bautista to lose their fourth straight.
Hanley Ramirez's triple, which bounced over Bautista's head in right field in the fifth inning, gave Boston a 6-4 lead it never yielded with Toronto going down in order the last three innings. Dustin Pedroia also drove in two Red Sox runs and made a sparkling fielding play to rob Ryan Goins of a single in the sixth before a Rogers Centre sellout of 47,138.
Boston (3-1) has now scored 28 runs in four games this season, including 16 in two outings against Toronto.
After three poor performances by the bullpen, Toronto (2-4) was done in by Dickey's dancing pitch which may have been too unpredictable on the day.
The 41-year-old needed just 21 pitches to take care of the first two innings — and 80 for the next three. Two Josh Thole passed balls, a wild pitch, errant pickoff attempt and eight hits didn't help as he faced 26 hitters over those five innings.
Dickey (1-1) did not make it to the sixth, leaving after yielding seven runs (six earned) with two walks and nine strikeouts. Of his 101 pitches, only 60 were strikes.
Bautista, who came into the game 11-for-26 against starter Rick Porcello, drove in Josh Donaldson with blasts in the first and third innings. It was his 29th career multi-homer game.
It was deja vu as Bautista punished two Porcello sliders to left and left-centre field. The homers were the first of the season for the Jays slugger, raising his career total to 288.
The fence-finders were also the first for Bautista at the Rogers Centre since his infamous bat flip moonshot in Game 5 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers on Oct. 14.
Porcello (1-0) went six innings in his season debut, allowing four runs on seven hits with one walk and seven strikouts.
After the bullpen faltered Friday for the third straight game, the Toronto offence took matters into its own hands early. Donaldson concluded a seven-pitch at-bat with a single to right, Bautista hammered a slider into left field.
After two strong innings, Dickey struggled in a three-run, 32-pitch third. A single, walk and errant pickoff throw to second put Red Sox runners on second and third with none out. Both came home thanks to a Pedroia groundout and Xander Bogaerts double. A wild pitch and Travis Shaw's double then made it 3-2 Boston.
After the inning, Dickey appeared unhappy at the strike zone.
Bautista restored the lead with one stroke of the bat after Donaldson, despite a sore calf, legged out a double.
There were more problems for Dickey in the fourth. A passed ball negated a Brock Holt strikeout that would have been the second out and the Boston left-fielder scored via a double and sacrifice fly to make it 4-4.
The misery piled up in the fifth with a single and walk that both came home on Ramirez's triple. A passed ball then scored Ramirez to make it 7-4.
Boston added a run on Pedroia's double off reliever Arnold Leon in the sixth.
The Jays shifted Donaldson to designated hitter for the second day in a row to protect his calf. Manager John Gibbons said the reigning AL MVP may not return to third until after the rest day Monday.
The injury does not seem to be affect Donaldson's bat. He has hit safely in all six games this season.
Left-fielder Michael Saunders was on the bench getting a breather given the short turnaround from Friday night's contest and to give his hamstring a rest.
On the plus side, Gibbons said Franklin Morales seemed fine the morning after complaining of a dead arm in the bullpen.
And in one of those you don't see that too often moments, plus-sized Boston third baseman Pablo (Kung Fu Panda) Sandoval endured the indignation of his belt unbuckling during a swing in his second-inning at-bat. He threw it away, then struck out.
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