None of that mattered once the Blue Jays' bats went cold. Boston plated a run in the first, and although both offenses stayed quiet through the middle innings, the Red Sox pulled away late while Toronto never got anything going against Boston's arms.
Boston's skid — and the sweep Toronto had going in this series — ended with the loudest inning of the day. The Red Sox tacked on 4 runs in the 8th to turn a tight one-run edge into a laugher, then padded it with 2 more in the 9th, finishing with 10 hits against a Blue Jays lineup that could only scratch out 2 the other way. Toronto's lone error opened the door a little wider.
The loss lands at a rough time for a Blue Jays club still clinging to long-shot wild-card hopes, and it came the same day Boston placed reliever Garrett Whitlock on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation — a fresh complication for a Red Sox bullpen already missing Zack Kelly for the year. Neither club walked away from this one fully healthy.
Still, for a Boston team that had dropped the first 3 of this very series, a full shutout on the road is exactly the answer interim manager Chad Tracy has been asking his group to grind out.