Dempster had another Dempster-like start. He pitched 6 innings, gave up 4 hits, 3 walks, a run, and struck out 4 on 100 pitches. The only atypical part of that stat line is the strikeouts. he has been piling up the strikeouts and this was his lowest strikeout total from a start this season. He started off the game by giving up a solo home run, this would be the only Blue Jays run this game. He also gave up a single in the first, but was bailed out by a double play to end the inning. He gave up 3 walks in the 3rd inning to load the bases for the Jays with one out, but got out of the jam with another double play. Other than that it was a fairly quiet outing for Dempster.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: B+
The bullpen still had work to do with 3 innings left to eat. Andrew Miller was a bit shaky giving up a hit and a walk and recording two outs. Tazawa was brought in to wrap up the 7th, which he did after giving up a walk to load the bases. Koji Uehara gave up just a single and got two strikeouts in the 8th. Normally, this is when Andrew Bailey would come in to close, but he's been experiencing some bicep discomfort since his last appearance against Houston so Joel Hanrahan came in for the 9th. Hanrahan gave up a hit and ended the game on a double play, but it's certainly an improvement over his last few appearances. The bullpen was a bit shaky, but 3 innings of work and no runs given up in a tight game is still a solid outcome.
BULLPEN GRADE: A-
The last time the Red Sox went up against J.A. Happ they couldn't get much going and had to wait to get into the Jays bullpen to score some runs to win the game. They chased Happ from this game after just 3.2 IP, but only actually put up 2 earned runs on Happ. Mike Napoli lead off the 2nd inning with a double. A Will Middlebrooks walk and a Mike Carp single would bring home Napoli for the first run of the night. David Ross walked to load the bases with one out in the 2nd and Middlebrooks would come in with a sacrifice fly from Stephen Drew. Jacoby Ellsbury flied out to end the threat. Jonny Gomes hit a leadoff double in the third and Daniel Nava drew a walk, but no runs came across in the third. In the 4th Mike Carp had a leadoff walk, but David Ross hit into a double play to clear the bases. After that Happ would walk Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jonny Gomes to load the bases again. At this point it was clear that Happ couldn't find the strike zone and he was pulled from the game with two outs in the 4th inning. Happ gave up 7 walks in this game, he had only given up 11 total walks in his 5 previous starts this season. Brad Lincoln would get Dustin Pedroia out to end the threat. The Red Sox added an insurance run in the 6th when David Ross worked a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Brad Lincoln. Lincoln was pulled at this point for Steve Delabar. Delabar gave up a single to Jacoby Ellsbury to score Ross from second for the Red Sox third run of the night. The Red Sox almost got something going in the 9th with a leadoff single from Jonny Gomes and Dustin Pedroia reaching on error with nobody out, but Mike Napoli hit into a double play and they couldn't score Gomes from third. I think the Red Sox really missed David Ortiz in the lineup, as Ortiz got the day off for this game. It was a really rough night for Dustin Pedroia going a dismal 0 for 5 and 0 for 3 with runners in scoring position. It was nice to see that when the Bats weren't getting much done the pitching was able to step up and keep the Jays to 1 run and get the win.
BATTING GRADE: C
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