BOSTON – Mark Buehrle pitched 6 2-3 innings to earn his first win in almost two months and Dioner Navarro had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Toronto Blue Jays to their fifth consecutive victory, a 6-1 win over the slumping Boston Red Sox.
Buehrle (11-7) allowed one run on six hits and a walk, striking out two to snap a six-game losing streak that matched the longest of his career. He had not won in nine starts since earning his ninth consecutive victory on June 1.
Toronto has won eight of its last nine games and trails first-place Baltimore by 2 1-2 games.
Brandon Workman (1-4) fell behind quickly after being called up from Triple-A to replace trade bait Jon Lester. The All-Star left-hander was originally scheduled to start for Boston, but he was scratched while his name is bandied about ahead of Thursday’s trade deadline.
As the Red Sox went down in the ninth, fans remaining from the sellout crowd chanted, “Jonny Lester!”
Workman walked the first two batters in the game before they both came around to score. The Blue Jays added three unearned runs in the fifth inning on errors from Workman and third baseman Xander Bogaerts.
The game marked a milestone in Boston’s woeful World Series title defence, coming a day before the trade deadline and in the middle of a streak in which the Red Sox have lost eight of nine games, fallen into last place and dropped 13 games behind the East-leading Orioles.
After shipping Jake Peavy to San Francisco on Saturday, the Red Sox sent demoted starter Felix Doubront to the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday. Lester, who is due to be a free agent, could follow him; so could John Lackey, who is scheduled to make the minimum next season.
Reliever Andrew Miller struck out the side in the seventh inning in what could be his audition for a contender.
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