The Blue Jays opened their weeklong homestand by getting thumped, falling 10-2 to the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre, their eighth loss in nine games. Here’s what you need to know:
It was over early, with the visitors building a seven-run lead by the third inning thanks to five home runs off losing pitcher Bowden Francis (2-4).
The Jays will welcome his gold-glove defence, and any power he can add to the lineup.
Boston starter Garrett Crochet cruised to victory, allowing four hits over seven innings. The only damage was a two-run homer by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. His third of the season moved him into a tie with Andr茅s Gim茅nez for the club lead.
Fastballs
Greatest catch ever?聽
Boston’s Jarren Duran hit a fly ball to deep centre in the top of the fourth. Daulton Varsho, activated off the injured list before the game, went back to the track, stumbled, fell to the ground and flipped over. He got to one knee and, still facing the wall, the gold-glover turned his head, reached out, and caught the ball behind his back.
In almost four decades of covering the Blue Jays, it might have been the greatest play I’ve seen.
鈥淭ripped myself up on the turf and saw the ball closely at the end and just kinda stuck my glove out and somehow it went in,” Varsho said. “It was a really high-percentage probability of a catch and (I) made it look really hard.
鈥淵ou work all the time on taking your eyes off the ball and obviously I was trying to turn back to my right and tripped over my feet. When I fell, I was like, 鈥極h boy, it鈥檚 going to be somewhat near me.鈥 I saw it really quick and kinda stuck my glove up.鈥
A record nobody wants
Bowden Francis became the third pitcher in Jays history to allow five home runs in a single game, joining Pat Hentgen, who did it twice, and Brett Cecil. Francis allowed a leadoff homer in each of his three innings of work聽鈥 to Jarren Duran, Kristian Campbell and Rafael Devers聽鈥 as well as a first-inning solo shot to Alex Bregman and a three-run homer by Wilyer Abreu in the third.
Roster shuffle
Will Wagner was sent down to make room for Varsho. The rookie started the season batting .389 but, since notching two hits April 1, he had gone just 4-for-41 with no extra-base hits. He’ll play both infield corners in Buffalo as the Jays try to get him into the groove that saw the left-handed swinger hit .305 with a .788 OPS in his month in the majors last year.
The Jays manager didn’t put this team together. And he’s not the one failing to deliver at the
Manager John Schneider said before the game that Kevin Gausman will be given an extra day of rest before his next start. He’ll pitch Saturday against Cleveland after throwing 53 pitches in the third inning in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader sweep at the hands of the Yankees.
Mailbag
Mattimack answered the call for questions @wilnerness on Bluesky to ask: “On a scale of one to 10, is Varsho’s defence an 11 or an 11.5?”
It’s probably higher than that, Matt, and the fact that he made a legitimately jaw-dropping circus catch in his first big-league game in more than seven months puts an awfully fine point on it.
But it’s not just that catch. Over his two years as a full-time outfielder, Varsho leads the major leagues with 55 defensive runs saved聽鈥 Jays second baseman Gim茅nez is second with 42聽鈥 and is second among outfielders to Colorado’s Brenton Doyle with 27 outs above average (Doyle has 29 DRS).
Put the two sometimes contradictory defensive metrics together and Varsho is nearly lapping the field.
He might even be a 15 out of 10 and now that he’s healthy, Jays fans get the pleasure of watching him work his magic again.
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