TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays’ long quest to return to the .500 mark continues.
After their weekend series win over the Cleveland Guardians, the Blue Jays could reach the elusive even mark with a win against the Boston Red Sox. But thanks to a quartet of home runs from the Red Sox, including a pair from Canadian outfielder Tyler O’Neill, Boston won 7-3 on Monday at the Rogers Centre.
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The loss drops the Blue Jays’ record to 35-37. It’s their fourth time failing to climb back to the .500 mark since the end of April. The club was last .500 (15-15) on April 29.
This was the Blue Jays’ first meeting with the Red Sox this season. It is odd, yes, to reach mid-June of the baseball calendar with two division teams yet to face off but such is the quirk of the MLB scheduling apparatus — which set the Jays and Red Sox to play each other six times in 10 days after not matching up for the first two and a half months.
The rivalry between these two teams has been hard to make sense of over the last two seasons because it’s felt very all-or-nothing for one side at different points.
In 2022, the Blue Jays dominated the Red Sox, going 16-3 against them while outscoring them 125-55. (There was the infamous game where the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 28-5 at Fenway Park.)
Then in 2023, the Red Sox came out hot against the Blue Jays — perhaps with memories of the previous year’s defeats still in their minds — and went 7-0 in their first two series against the Blue Jays, before Toronto won the next six straight games against them.
JT gets one back 💪 pic.twitter.com/9KyHPgGnfx
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) June 18, 2024
“There’s been definitely some key players on both sides at different times in this series against these guys,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said about the rivalry. “You circle a couple of guys in their lineup, for sure, that are just perennial All-Stars. It’s been weird how we’ve matched up. The year before I think we handled them pretty well, and (in 2023) they came out of the gates handling us well and then Davis Schneider to the rescue at Fenway.”
It’s early in this season’s series against the Red Sox, but Boston has the early edge and remains third in the American League East standings, 2 1/2 games up on the Blue Jays, who are in fourth place.
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The Red Sox have been having a better season than initially projected. Before the season, FanGraphs projected them to be a last-place team, as they’ve been for the past two seasons. But Boston has had strong pitching from their starting rotation and bullpen and ranks as the fourth-best staff in the AL. The offence has been only a bit better than the league average, which helps to explain why they’re still sitting 2 1/2 games outside of a playoff spot.
The Red Sox bats looked alive on Monday, though. Boston tagged Blue Jays starter Yusei Kikuchi with four solo home runs in the first three innings. O’Neill, who grew up in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and Rafael Devers hit back-to-back homers in the first inning to put the Red Sox up 2-0 early.
After the Blue Jays scored on a sacrifice fly from Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the second inning to make it a 2-1 game, Red Sox rookie centre fielder Ceddanne Rafaela led off the third inning with a solo shot before O’Neill hit his second bomb of the night to put the Red Sox up 4-1.
Tyler O'Neill cleared for takeoff AGAIN ✈️ pic.twitter.com/ltnNOONSGl
— NESN (@NESN) June 18, 2024
“They were on mistakes, I think,” Schneider said about the Red Sox’s four home runs. “They put good swings on pitches that were in the middle.”
Kikuchi hasn’t given up more than a single home run in any of his 14 previous starts this season, so the four surrendered on Monday were a significant outlier. He finished with five earned runs on seven hits over four innings with seven strikeouts. Schneider was asked whether Kikuchi was tipping, but he didn’t think that was a factor.
“We’ll look at it, but again, I think that good hitters just took swings on pitches that were hittable,” the Blue Jays manager said.
Added Kikuchi: “There were obviously probably some pitches that I didn’t locate well, too, but I think they also had a good approach, as well.”
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Kikuchi’s second-shortest outing of the season meant a heavier lift for the bullpen on a day when they lost one of their regulars to injury. Before the game, the Blue Jays placed Yimi García on the 15-day injured list with right elbow ulnar neuritis. García left Sunday’s game in the ninth inning with what the Blue Jays initially called right elbow soreness.
Before the game, Schneider said that an MRI on García’s elbow showed no structural damage, but they opted to put him on the IL and recalled left-handed pitcher Brandon Eisert from Triple-A Buffalo. He made his MLB debut, pitching the eighth and ninth innings against the Red Sox.
“(Garcia’s) so important to us that I think we just erred on the side of making sure that it was right and hopefully it’s a minimal stint for him,” Schneider said.
García is in the midst of a career season, with a 2.57 ERA in 27 appearances (28 innings), and had taken over the closer role while Jordan Romano was on the IL with elbow inflammation. The Blue Jays are without two of their best late-inning arms and will need others to step up.
“I think it’s going to take a little bit of everyone with probably (Chad Green, Nate Pearson and Zach Pop) taking the lead,” the manager said.
The Red Sox padded their lead with runs in the fourth and seventh innings. Home runs from Justin Turner, against his former club, and Davis Schneider weren’t enough to overcome the early deficit.
The Blue Jays will need to win on Tuesday if they want another crack at getting back to .500 soon.
(Photo of Yusei Kikuchi: Dan Hamilton / USA Today)