Blue Jays erupt in eighth to beat Red Sox, close in on sweep

TORONTO — One inning completely changed the night at Rogers Centre. After spending much of the game locked in a 1-1 tie, the Toronto Blue Jays broke through with five runs in an electric eighth inning and held off a late Boston rally to defeat the Red Sox 6-4.

The victory gave Toronto a commanding 3-0 lead in the four-game series and improved its record to 59-63. The Blue Jays will now have an opportunity to complete the sweep in the series finale.

Toronto has won five of its last six games and 13 of its last 20, continuing its recent turnaround while moving back to .500 at Rogers Centre with a 31-31 home record. The Blue Jays are also 9-3 against Boston this season.

Before the late offensive surge, José Soriano provided the foundation in his first start at Rogers Centre as a Blue Jay.

The right-hander limited Boston to one run on four hits and two walks across six innings, striking out four. He threw 63 of his 90 pitches for strikes and opened 14 of his 22 matchups with a first-pitch strike.

Soriano relied heavily on contact management, keeping the ball on the ground and preventing Boston from producing sustained pressure. His only mistake came in the fifth inning, when Willson Contreras drove a knuckle curve over the wall in left-centre field for his team-leading 24th home run.

That swing tied the game after Toronto had opened the scoring in the second. Kazuma Okamoto led off the inning with a double and later came home when Ernie Clement delivered a two-out RBI single.

Boston starter Ranger Suárez prevented the Blue Jays from doing further damage. The left-hander allowed one run on six hits and one walk over five innings, continuing his success against Toronto. He has now surrendered only one earned run across 26.1 career innings against the Blue Jays.

The game remained tied until Toronto’s offence came alive in the eighth. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. began the rally with his second single of the night. After Andrés Giménez was intentionally walked, Okamoto put the Blue Jays ahead with a two-strike RBI single against Tyron Guerrero.

It was Okamoto’s team-leading 13th go-ahead RBI of the season and another example of his production in important moments. He leads the American League with 25 hits and 25 RBI in late-and-close situations.

The inning continued to unravel for Boston. Clement drew a bases-loaded walk to bring home another run before Myles Straw drove a two-run double into left field, stretching Toronto’s advantage and igniting Rogers Centre.

Straw finished 2-for-4 with two RBI, recording his 12th multi-hit game of the season. He is batting .310 with seven doubles, five RBI and an .849 OPS over his last 11 starts.

Okamoto also completed a productive night at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double, a walk, two runs and the go-ahead RBI. Clement drove in two runs, while Guerrero finished 2-for-5 with a run scored for his 31st multi-hit game of the year.

The five-run cushion proved important when Boston mounted one final push in the ninth. Wilyer Abreu opened the threat with a double and scored on an RBI single by Caleb Durbin. Jarren Duran followed with a run-scoring double off the right-field wall, and Andruw Monasterio added a sacrifice fly.

With the lead reduced to two, Louis Varland entered and retired both batters he faced to secure the victory. It was his 26th save of the season, while his 1.30 ERA remained the best in the majors among pitchers with at least 200 batters faced.

The ninth inning brought some late tension, but it could not erase what Toronto accomplished one frame earlier. Behind Soriano’s composed home debut and an offence that found another gear when it mattered most, the Blue Jays secured the series and moved within one victory of a four-game sweep over their division rivals.