Red Sox Grades

This was a frustrating game for the Red Sox. It was essentially a complete pitching failure. John Lester had a terrible start, the bullpen gave up multiple runs and a good day for the Red Sox at the plate was squandered.

Jon Lester struggled for most of this game. It seemed like every hit, walk, hit batter and error came back to haunt him and put runs across for the Blue Jays. Part of this is just bad timing, but to some extent he shouldn't have been in those positions in the first place if he had been pitching well. It was disappointing to see this as Lester had pitched so well against the Blue Jays 3 weeks ago and he struggled in his previous start against Oakland as well. Hopefully this isn't Lester reverting back to his 2012 form.
STARTING PITCHING GRADE: D

The Red Sox bats came through in the top of the 7th putting 3 runs up to give the Red Sox a 7-6 lead when Junichi Tazawa came on for the bottom of the 7th and struggled. After getting the first two batters out Tazawa walked Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion hit his second 2-run home run of the game to give the Jays back the lead. This was a poor showing from Tazawa, but I think it's important to keep some perspective on this. This doubled Tazawa's earned run total for the season from 2 to 4 and Tazawa leads the bullpen in innings pitched. Joel Hanrahan made his first appearance since coming off of the DL with the task of keeping the game within a run for the Red Sox in the bottom of the 8th. Hanrahan didn't help matters by giving up a leadoff single, the runner advanced on a sacrifice and was brought home by another single to make it a 2 run game headed into the 9th. I'm not overly concerned because the bullpen has some solid depth to it, but Hanrahan hasn't looked good. This was hardly a meltdown like the ones he was having before his DL stint, but this is unacceptable if he wants to get back into the closer role.
BULLPEN GRADE: F

The Red Sox had a pretty good night at the plate that went to waste because of bad pitching. David Ortiz and Mike Carp hit solo home runs in the 4th to cut the lead down to 2. Stephen Drew, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia all hit singles in the 5th to add one more. Jonny Gomes hit a solo shot in the 6th to add another. Ellsbury hit a single, Daniel Nava reached on error and Dustin Pedroia worked a walk to load the bases for Big Papi. Papi hit a bases clearing double to put the Red Sox on top 7-6. Unfortunately, Tazawa blew the lead shortly thereafter and the offense couldn't produce anything in the 8th and 9th. Ortiz had another great night going 2 for 5 with a solo home run and a 3-RBI double. His boost to this offense has been tremendous. Pedroia had a 2 for 4 night with two singles, a run, an RBI and a walk. Jacoby Ellsbury got on base 4 times with 2 singles and 2 walks, but had a costly baserunning error in the 5th. Mike Napoli had a tough night striking out in all four at bats. Daniel Nava went hitless, but managed to reach and score a run on an error. Will Middlebrooks went hitless and hit into an inning ending double play in the 4th.
BATTING GRADE: A-