TORONTO – Five days after puzzling the Boston Red Sox in eight dominant innings at Fenway Park, Kevin Gaussman and his mesmerizing splitter made them swing in the air again.
Another gem, this time six innings of four-stroke brilliance, nine outs, an undeserved run, reinforced how the right-hand repertoire will not only play in the East American League meat grinder, but this knowledge will not help opponents inflict damage on him.
Indeed, what the Toronto Blue Jays need to do is make sure they take advantage of what Gaussman gives them, something they did dramatically on Tuesday night, collecting three runs in the ninth before the victim. Ramiel Tapia in the 10th win over the Boston Red Sox 6-5.
Gaussman gave a 2-1 lead to the bullpen, but Yimi Garcia conceded four places in the eighth inning – the first run won against him in nine outings so far. However, Jake Dickman could not conclude things, as the next pairs of Tapia and Santiago Espinal made 5-3, before the fourth for the season of George Springer surfaced over the left center wall of the field.
Jordan Romano, facing the heart of the Red Sox squad, followed a zero in the top 10, calmly knocking down returning Xander Bogaerts, who headed to his torso for the second out before catching JD Martinez.
The Red Sox deliberately passed Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to open the bottom half, Alejandro Kirk made another walk after falling behind 0-2 to load the bases and after Matt Barnes caught Matt Chapman watching, Matt Stram came in and Tapia fights him for nine launches before moving a slider over five infields to the left field.
Bo Bishet conveniently shook it to cause trouble among a crowd of 22,611.
The Red Sox rally against Garcia came after seven innings on a tightrope. Exhausting with just five regular players after a hamstring strain from Lourdes Guriel Jr., the Blue Jays managed to score just two runs from Nick Piveta, despite three hits and four walks in 4.2 innings against local Victoria.
Springer won Gosuke Katoh with a linear single in the third inning, while Espinal brought home a Guerrero walk with two outs at the base of the fourth.
The Espinal single canceled Boston’s only escape from Gaussman in the top half of the frame when a throwing error by Zack Collins when Bogaerts stole the second created a scapegoat for Kike Hernandez on a liner brilliantly chased by scuba diver Bradley Zimmer.
The Blue Jace held the lead 2-1 to eighth when striker Rafael Devers took the lead with a single, Christian Vasquez cut the ball through the right side against a substitution, Trevor Story followed with an RBI double, Alex Verdugo executed a sacrificial fly and Bogaerts doubled in the fourth round.
That was all for Garcia and David Phelps eventually conceded a single to Hernandez, which gave them a 5-2 lead.
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