TORONTO — Xander Bogaerts may well have made the key play for the Red Sox in their 4-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Sunday.
The Blue Jays were leading 3-0 in the fourth inning and Bogaerts was at first base after an infield single to Toronto shortstop Ryan Goins, who made a nice diving stop but could not make the throw to first.
The shift was on for the next batter, designated hitter David Ortiz, who hit a grounder to Toronto first baseman Chris Colabello. Colabello bobbled the ball and thus had no play at second, before tossing to left-hander Mark Buehrle who covered first and got the out there.
Bogaerts continued to third base and, when Buehrle threw errantly to third, was able to come home with Boston’s first run of the game. The Blue Jays still led 3-1 but the tide had turned.
“Bogey makes a heads-up play,” interim manager Torey Lovullo said. “We encourage that type of base-running if we feel the circumstances are right. In this case it led to the first run.”
“I was just going to go in and slide (into second) and then I saw (third baseman) Josh Donaldson break late to third,” Bogaerts said. “I don’t even know what happened back there, so I went. I only saw Donaldson. If the guy fields it clean and throws to second, I’m out. But when I saw the video, he didn’t field it clean and that’s why Donaldson took off late.”
“It kind of set a different tone for us,” Lovullo said. “It opened our eyes a little bit in our dugout and gave us a little lift, and we look for moments like that.”
And when the Red Sox got a beneficial bounce on the throw home from center field that eluded catcher Dioner Navarro on center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.’s sacrifice fly in the eighth, they were on their way to winning their second series from the Blue Jays this month.
“I think we got lucky on that play, I really do,” Lovullo said. “Credit to Jackie for getting the ball to the outfield, he did his job. They executed the throw pretty well but they didn’t catch it.”
The Red Sox took the season series from the Blue Jays 10-9 and have won 71 games this season, which equals their total from 2014.