TORONTO – Jackie Bradley Jr., David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez all hit home runs as the Boston Red Sox’s impressive offence overwhelmed the Toronto Blue Jays 11-8 on Sunday afternoon in a wild game between the two best teams in the American League East.
The loss drops the Blue Jays to two games back of Boston for first place in the AL East. Toronto had been in first as recently as Sept. 6, but has lost seven of its past 10 games to fall behind the Red Sox.
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Edwin Encarnacion had two homers for Toronto (78-64), while Troy Tulowitzki added a grand slam.
The pitching staffs of both teams struggled in the high-scoring game, with 18 pitchers toeing the rubber over the course of the game.
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Starter Aaron Sanchez gave up six runs over 3 2/3 innings of work, striking out two in his start for the Blue Jays. Brett Cecil, Joe Biagini, Aaron Loup, Bo Schultz, Joaquin Benoit, Danny Barnes, Matt Dermody and Ryan Tepera all combined for 5 1/3 innings, giving up a combined five runs.
Clay Buchholz (6-10) threw just three innings, giving up six runs before making way for the Red Sox (80-62) bullpen. Heath Hembree, Noe Ramirez, Robbie Ross Jr., Brad Ziegler, Fernando Abad, Matt Barnes, Koji Uehera and Craig Kimbrel all came on in relief.