After a remarkable run of 10 straight wins, the Red Sox ran into troubles Friday night against the Blue Jays. In a highly uncharacteristic outing, Sox starter Rick Porcello lasted just 2.0 IP, coughing up his team’s lead twice in that short time.
Porcello allowed a season-high four walks on Friday. It marked just the seventh time of 298 career outings where he’s done that, and never in such a short time.
“I had a terrible night, that’s for sure,” Porcello told the media afterwards, saying there was nothing physically wrong, “I felt pretty good, honestly, all week I felt pretty good.”
On a night with seven Red Sox runs, including two triples in back-to-back plate appearances from Mookie Betts, Boston fell 13-7 to the 43-50 Jays.
In an odd twist of date, the Red Sox had not lost a Fenway game after scoring seven or more runs, including two triples, since the Fourth of July 2011 playing against, you guessed it, the Blue Jays.
Friday’s loss snapped Boston’s longest win streak since 11 in a row, September 15-25, 2016.
A few other notes from last night’s game:
- Betts became the first for Red Sox with two triples in a game since Xander Bogaerts did it on May 17, 2017.
- Betts is the first Red Sox hitter to triple in each of his first 2 at-bats of a game since David Ortiz on July 22, 2004 (Game 1) against the Orioles.
- The last major leaguer to triple in each of the first two innings of a game was the Cubs’ Dexter Fowler on April 11, 2015.
- Betts is hitting .409 with a .493 on-base percentage and a 1.301 OPS at home. All three marks are the best for any major leaguer with at least 100 plate appearances at home this season.
- Porcello’s outing was the second-shortest for a Red Sox starter this season after 1.0 IP by David Price against the Yankees on April 11.
- Despite the loss, the Red Sox amassed 12 hits on Friday. It was the club’s 46th game with 10 or more hits, the most such games in the majors.
- Justin Smoak hit a home run against Porcello in the 3rd inning and then another, from the other side of the plate, against Boston reliever Robby Scott. It marked the 10th time in franchise history that a Toronto player homered from both sides of the plate in the same game. Smoak and Hall of Famer Roberto Alomar are the only Blue Jays with two such games.