The Blue Jays and Red Sox wrapped up their four game series in Boston on Thursday, with Toronto looking to sweep and Boston hoping to avoid losing four straight. Toronto sent right-hander Chris Bassitt to the mound and the Red Sox went with new addition to rotation in Walker Buehler. Once again, this game had the makings of an elite pitchers duel, with two guys going out there to carry their teams to a win.

Both pitchers would in fact engage in yet another impressive pitcher’s duel, with neither side allowing a run through five full innings. Defence would also be a big factor in keeping the game scoreless, as the gloves on both sides would come to play, making multiple big catches to save runs.

The bottom of the sixth would come and it would be the Red Sox to strike first, as Alex Bregman would line a single into left field, that would score the first run of the game off of Bassitt, and give Boston a 1-0 lead.

Top of the seventh, Toronto would answer with two men on and Tyler Heineman would rip a ball over the head of the left fielder, and bounce off the green monster that would score Will Wagner to even the game up at 1-1. Boston was almost able to get out of the inning with no extra damage done, but after a failed double play attempt, another run would come in to score thanks to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Moving to the bottom of the eighth, Boston would be able to tie up the game at after a wild pitch from Yimi Garcia went far enough to the backstop to allow a runner from third to score and the game would get back to square one at 2-2.

For the second straight game in the series, these two teams would need extra innings to decide it, and in the top of the 10th, Toronto would put a run on the board after George Springer would hit a sac fly into right field that would be deep enough to score Andres Gimenez from third and give Toronto a 3-2 advantage with a chance to win it in the bottom half.

However, Boston would come back and tie it immediately, thanks to a lead-off RBI hit from Jarren Duran. The Sox would then be able to load the bases with only one out, and Trevor Story would hit a ground ball to second that would be bobbled by Gimenez, giving the runner from third more than enough time to score and give the Red Sox the walk-off win.

Although it was a valiant effort by the Blue Jays, they were unable to complete the sweep, having to settle for the series win taking three out of four. A key thing to note from this game was the home plate umpiring, and quite a few missed calls throughout the course of the entire contest, with a majority going against the favour of the Blue Jays. Whether it was questionable called strikes above or below the zone, or some unfavourable missed calls against Bassitt on the corners, the Jays just happened to have alot stacked against them the entire game and still managed to send it to extra innings and almost pulled off the win.

Toronto now goes off to their third straight series on the road, taking no breaks in between heading to Camden Yards in Baltimore to take on the Orioles for the second time this season.

Winner: Boston Red Sox (7-7)

Loser: Toronto Blue Jays (8-6)

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:

J. Duran: 2/3, 1RBI, 2BB

W. Buehler: 6.1IP, 4H, 1ER, 7K

T. Story 2/5, 1RBI

PITCHERS:

Win – B. Bernardino: 1.0IP, 0H, 1R (1-0)

Loss – N. Sandlin: 0.2IP, 2H, 1ER (0-2)