TORONTO -- Craig Kimbrel turned 28 on Saturday, but it's safe to say he has had better birthdays. The Boston Red Sox closer's mood was far from celebratory after he earned both a blown save and a loss as part of an overall bullpen meltdown in Boston's 10-9 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Red Sox carried an 8-4 lead into the eighth inning, yet the four-run cushion wasn’t enough. After Tommy Layne and Junichi Tazawa were ineffective, manager John Farrell turned to Kimbrel with one out and the tying run on third base. Kimbrel retired his first batter but couldn’t put away Jose Bautista, and the Jays slugger grounded an RBI single to right field.
It seemed David Ortiz had added to his clutch legacy -- and bailed out his bullpen -- by hitting a solo homer in the ninth to retake the lead for the Sox, but the advantage was short-lived. With two outs in the ninth and an 0-2 count on Jays first baseman Justin Smoak, Kimbrel allowed a line-drive single into center field. Kimbrel also worked the next batter, Russell Martin, to an 0-2 count before the Jays’ catcher fought back to even the count and deposit a game-tying double into the left-field gap.
“I wish I wouldn’t have kept that curveball [to Smoak] in the zone," Kimbrel said. "Whenever you give up, you want to think back, but it was a good piece of hitting. They drove it."
Kimbrel wasn’t helped by a throwing error from catcher Christian Vazquez that allowed pinch runner Ezequiel Carrera to advance to third base after he stole second. Although Carrera would have scored from second (or even first) on Martin’s double anyway, Vazquez felt he should’ve been able to throw Carrera out, “but the throw carried,” the catcher said.
A wild pitch that allowed Martin to reach third was the more damaging miscue, as Martin ended up scoring after Devon Travis sent a grounder to third base. Travis Shaw delivered a short-hop throw, Hanley Ramirez couldn’t squeeze the ball at first, and the infield single handed Boston a walk-off loss.
“Travis gives him a throw, and we’ve seen Hanley catch that ball a number of times,” manager John Farrell said. “If we give him a chance to replay that, he probably makes that play routinely. ... Unfortunate situation in a key moment.”
The Red Sox suffered a number of “unfortunate situations” on Saturday, between two wild pitches, two hit batters, two failed replay reviews, Ramirez's being thrown out while stretching after a two-run single and a few close balls to Jays batters that many on the Boston roster felt were strikes.
Despite all the misfortune, the powerful Sox lineup kept bringing the team back. Every Red Sox starter had at least one hit, with shortstop Xander Bogaerts leading the way with a 3-for-5 day that included a solo home run. The hit extended Bogaerts’ hit streak to 21 games.
Bogaerts’ homer led off the fourth inning after Toronto jumped to a 3-0 lead with three runs off starter Rick Porcello in the bottom of the third. That was the first of eight runs Boston scored in a four-inning span, and that knocked Jays starter Marcus Stroman from the game.
“The bats were swinging real well," Kimbrel said. "They gave us a chance, and we couldn’t finish it off in the bullpen."
Layne didn’t retire either of his two batters faced, while Tazawa’s career-long struggles against the Blue Jays continued. After Saturday (two runs charged in a third of an inning), he sports a 7.39 ERA in 28 career innings against Toronto.
Bullpen reliability hasn’t been much of an issue for the Sox this year, despite their being without projected setup man Carson Smith because of season-ending Tommy John surgery. Boston relievers entered the game with a combined 2.17 ERA since April 28, the lowest mark among all major league bullpens. The Red Sox had been 27-1 this year when holding a lead after seven innings.
The numbers haven’t amounted to much during this Toronto series, however, as the bullpen suffered a late-game breakdown for the second time in as many days. Koji Uehara allowed a two-run homer to Josh Donaldson in the eighth inning of Friday’s game, and that proved to be the difference in a 7-5 Red Sox loss. Farrell said Uehara was available Saturday, “but we opted to stay away from him with a quick turnaround” to a day game after a night game.
This led to Kimbrel's being called upon for more than his usual ninth-inning role, and it was his first time pitching since May 22. Despite the different circumstances, Kimbrel made no excuses for his performance.
“I wasn’t as sharp as I feel like I should’ve been, but my job is to go out there and pitch, no matter if it’s one day off or 10 days off,” Kimbrel said. “I’ve [been called for a multi-inning save] a few times. It can be tough to get back going, but once you warm up and attack that first hitter … it’s all the same.”
Farrell said he wouldn’t have brought Kimbrel back for the ninth if the Sox hadn’t retaken the lead, and the closer’s layoff contributed to the decision to bring him into the game in the eighth.
“Craig had plenty of rest. It felt like that was the most critical point late in the game," Farrell said. "Unfortunately, we couldn’t close the door."
Kimbrel threw a career-high 39 pitches, though neither he nor Farrell gave any indication that the closer wouldn’t be available for Sunday. Between Kimbrel’s heavy workload and Tazawa and Matt Barnes both throwing fairly lengthy outings in each of the past two games, the Sox could be short-handed in the bullpen Sunday. It is possible that Clay Buchholz could be available to pitch out of the bullpen, Farrell noted before the game, as the former starter begins his transition to relief pitching.