Sometimes the crucial plays that determine the outcome of a game come early, and the rest of the game carries an air of inevitability as each side plays out its fate.
In the top of the first, after Kevin Pillar took a called third strike from David Price, Josh Donaldson smashed a ball to Fenway’s Bermuda Triangle in right centre for a triple. Then Jose Bautista rifled the second pitch he saw from Price high off the wall in left, scoring Donaldson, and seeming to just beat the throw from Jackie Bradley Jr. to Travis Shaw at third, for a second consecutive triple. It looked like Price could be on the ropes. But the Sox asked for a review, the call on the field was overturned, and Bautista became the second out of the inning. Edwin Encarnacion went down swinging, and Price was off the hook with minimal damage. He proceeded to set the Jays down in order in the second and third, and the natural order of the universe was restored.
When Marco Estrada breezed through the first and stranded a walk to David Ortiz and a Shaw single in the second, it looked like we were settling in for a good pitching duel, with the Jays in the lead to boot. Then disaster struck in the third, with Estrada coughing up a Xander Bogaerts homer to left, unfortunately after two very lucky (for the Sox) infield hits. Bradley Jr. bounced one off Estrada’s calf (he appeared not to suffer any serious damage, and was able to continue), and then Dustin Pedroia squibbed a grounder to Donaldson’s left which he reached but couldn’t hold. One solid contact, three runs. There were no errors on the hits, but both could have been turned into outs with a good play.
The Jays got one back right away in the fourth, when Encarnacion’s double cashed Bautista’s one-out single, and there it stayed. Estrada went a steady six except for the one inning, and Brett Cecil and Gavin Floyd chipped in one uneventful inning each. Price scatters six hits and strikes out nine over seven innings, then Uehara and Kimbrel finish off as advertised.
Like many tight games, this one relied on good pitching, timely hitting, and a spot of luck, which rolled the right way for the Red Sox, not so much for the Jays.
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