Red Sox fall to Blue Jays after Martin Perez takes no-hitter into 7th inning

Blue Jays 6, Red Sox 2 (10 innings)

The Red Sox wasted a rare gem from the pitcher’s mound to take their fourth straight loss and fall to an MLB-worst 12-26 on the season.

The takeaways:

1. No-no had a chance

Martin Perez produced the Red Sox’ best pitching performance of the season for six innings.

Perez, who was signed in the offseason to be the team’s No. 5 starter, has become the ace (and only legitimate starter) after injuries to Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi and the trade of David Price to the Dodgers.

For one night, he looked like an ace.

Perez had a magnificent changeup in this one. The best pitch anyone on the Sox has thrown this year, Perez’s changeup produced 10 swing-and-misses on 34 attempts. It was falling out of the zone with late movement. And with excellent command of his cutter, Perez was quickly getting ahead in the count and putting batters away.

The Blue Jays, a notoriously aggressive team, were held without a hit through six brilliant innings. Perez needed 77 pitches to get through them, giving him an outside chance at a no-no, despite issuing three walks.

“I was focused man,” Perez said. “I didn’t really think I was throwing a no-hitter. I was just going pitch-by-pitch, one hitter at a time. That was a great performance for me tonight.”

But the Red Sox put together an abnormally long bottom of the sixth inning. They singled twice, walked twice and forced the Jays to make a pitching change, keeping Perez in the dugout for about a half-hour.

When he finally came back out to protect his 2-0 lead, his command was off, his stuff wasn’t as sharp and Teoscar Hernandez roped a curveball 110 mph off the bat straight at the Green Monster for a single, ending Perez’s no-no bid.

“They made the adjustments with my pitches,” he said. “They’re smart hitters too.”

He unraveled from there, allowing a run to score. He finished 6 ⅔ innings while allowing three hits and three walks, collecting five strikeouts. He’s got a 4.07 ERA on the season and the Sox hold a $6.5-million team option for 2021 that looks somewhat promising, depending on whether or not the Sox are willing to spend on their team next year.

“Outstanding,” manager Ron Roenicke said. “To have them hitless for that long was a great job and commanded the ball really well, fastballs both sides of the plate, changeup was outstanding, and the breaking ball was good. That little cutter he throws. He pitched great. Just a shame we didn’t get him a win.”

It might’ve been enough had Ryan Brasier not entered the game.

Austin Brice gave up a double and a walk to start the eighth before Brasier replaced him in painful fashion. His first move out of the bullpen was a balk as the tying run moved to third. His next move was a wild pitch in the dirt that scooted to the backstop and let the run score.

“It doesn’t get much worse than that,” Dennis Eckersley said on the NESN broadcast.

In extra innings, the Sox turned the ball over to Phillips Valdez, their best reliever this season. There were runners on second and third and one out when Roenicke elected to pitch to the Jays’ best hitter, Hernandez, who then roped a three-run homer over the right-field fence.

2. Jackie Bradley Jr. is heating up at the plate.

The free-agent-to-be homered for the second straight night and has a little five-game hitting streak going. It was a no-doubter from Bradley on a low slider in the second inning and gave him four homers on the season.

3. Bobby Dalbec is struggling.

Dalbec can’t catch up to fastballs and it’s becoming painfully obvious for anyone watching these games. He was 0-for-3 with a walk and two more strikeouts. He is now 2-for-15 with 10 strikeouts since being promoted to the big leagues.

 

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/32Viybd