Red Sox left to lick their wounds after absorbing another blow against Blue Jays
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The Sox, who have been outscored 59-9 in their last four games, were without J.D. Martinez (back spasms) and Rafael Devers, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Saturday with what the team called right hamstring inflammation.
After allowing a record 28 runs in their hideous loss to the Blue Jays, the Sox were forced to run out a lineup you might see during a spring training game in Fort Myers, Fla.
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Meanwhile, the Blue Jays had George Springer back in the lineup, who was out Friday with a sore elbow, and All-Star Alek Manoah on the mound.
The Sox battled in this contest, though.
Bobby Dalbec gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead when he belted a hanging slider from Manoah for a solo home run. The next batter, Jackie Bradley Jr., singled to right and advanced to second on a Yolmer Sanchez hit-and-run. Bradley then advanced to third on a wild pitch, giving the Red Sox a prime scoring opportunity to extend their lead. But Manoah buckled down and struck out Jeter Downs and got Jarren Duran to fly out to left field to end the threat.
The Sox compiled seven hits total against Manoah, however, it wasn’t wasn’t enough as Manoah recordedseven strikeouts in six innings of work, the last of which led to the Blue Jays big righthander taking a parting shot at Dalbec as the stalked off the mound.
In the sixth inning, Manoah surrendered a leadoff single to Alex Verdugo, but struck out the next three Sox batters: Xander Bogaerts, Franchy Cordero, and Dalbec.
The Red Sox’ lack of offense underminedwhat was Kutter Crawrford’s second straight quality performance against an American League East opponent.
With the Sox ahead, 1-0, Crawford did run into trouble in the third inning, however, after two scoreless frames.
Matt Chapman led the inning off with a single, then scored on Santiago Espinal’s RBI single to right center. Cavan Biggio’s double put runners at second and third before George Springer made it 2-1 on his RBI single to center.
Alejandro Kirk’s sacrifice fly brought in a third run, however, that would be the only damage against Crawford, who turned in six innings and did not allow his fifth and final hit until the top of the sixth when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. dumped in a single to right field.
The Red Sox threatened in the bottom of the eighth when Adam Cimber entered the game in relief of Yimi Garcia and issued a leadoff walk to Christian Vázquez, induced Alex Verdugo to fly out, and hit Bogaerts on the right forearm to put two men aboard. He then struck out Cordero to hand the baton to All-Star reliever Jordan Romano.
With two men in scoring position and two out, Romano fell behind in the count against Dalbec, 3-1, before inducing a high fly to center that nestled in Springer’s glove for the inning-ending out.
The Blue Jays tacked on an insurance run in the ninth against Sox reliever Ryan Brasier on an RBI double by Teoscar Hernández that scored pinch-runner Bradley Zimmer to put the game out of reach.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.