The Toronto Blue Jays are back in action after a sweep of the Texas Rangers. Ryu Hyun-jin, 36, will lead the charge for a fourth straight win.
Toronto defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-3 at home on Sunday (July 17) at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The victory clinched the best-of-seven series against Boston with a two-game sweep.
Toronto dropped to fourth place in the American League Wild Card Series after being swept in a four-game series against Texas at home on April 15. The Jays lost all four games to their archrivals and seemed to lose momentum, falling 1.5 games behind the third-place Seattle Mariners for a postseason berth at the time.
However, they reeled off two straight wins and began to climb back into the top three. The win pushed Toronto, which is 82-67 on the season with a .550 winning percentage, to within one game of Seattle (81-66 with a .551 winning percentage), which has yet to play a 17-game schedule. Seattle will face the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West in a short while. If Seattle loses, they’ll swap places with Toronto.
Game 17 was a pitcher’s duel until the middle innings. Through five innings, the score was tied at 0-0 with strong pitching from both teams. In the sixth inning, Boston struck first. Second baseman Willy Abreu led off with a walk and stole second. Center fielder Rafael Devers followed with a two-run home run to take the lead. Toronto tried to rally in the seventh on a solo shot by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. but failed to score in the ensuing two-out rally.
Toronto narrowly missed out in the ninth. Pinch-hitter Cavan Biggio led off with a single to right and advanced to second on a wild pitch. The next batter, Dalton Bashaw, capitalized, hitting a long fly ball over the center field fence, advancing to third with the tying run.
The game would go into extra innings. After a scoreless 10th and 11th innings, the teams traded runs in the 12th on a Pablo Reyes single and a Beau Bichette sacrifice fly.
Still, the hindsight was on Toronto’s side. With the bases loaded, Santiago Espinal drew a walk to put runners on second and third, and Whit Merrifield followed with an RBI single to end the long game.안전놀이터
Toronto didn’t get the individual win, but Chris Bassitt got the start and pitched seven strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits with five strikeouts. Boston starter Chris Sale was equally ace with six innings of two-run ball, striking out 10 and walking one, but was unable to add to his start as the Red Sox tied the game in the ninth.
Spearheading Toronto’s bid for a third straight win will be the Korean Monster, Ryu Hyun-jin. Ryu will look to pick up his fourth win of the season on April 18 against Boston. He is 3-3 with a 2.93 ERA in eight starts this season. Since returning from elbow surgery, he hasn’t pitched more than five innings since his return, but last time out, he went six innings and allowed three runs in Texas, his first quality start of the year.