4-run 7th lifts Toronto to 7-6 win over Boston

[April 16, 2011]  BOSTON (AP) -- Another comeback win for the Toronto Blue Jays. Another loss for the Boston Red Sox.

Jose Bautista singled in the go-ahead run in a four-run seventh inning and the Blue Jays came from behind for the fifth time in seven wins this season, deepening the misery of the struggling Red Sox with a 7-6 victory on Friday night.

"They are all good wins," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said.

Good, bad or ugly, the Red Sox desperately need a win after dropping to 2-10, matching their poorest start in history and making the worst record in baseball even worse. They did hit two homers after managing just seven in their first 11 games, but finished with only five hits.

Brett Cecil (1-1) gave up those homers to Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis in the third when Boston went ahead 3-0. Toronto tied it on Corey Patterson's two-run double in the fifth and Travis Snider's RBI double in the sixth.

"This team is not going to quit and neither am I," Cecil said. "I feel great about tonight. Two bad pitches and that was it."

Bobby Jenks (0-1) started the seventh for Boston and allowed all four runs, making it 7-3.

The Red Sox scored three in the eighth on an RBI single by Jed Lowrie and a two-run double by Marco Scutaro.

"It's not going to mean anything tomorrow because we lost," Boston manager Terry Francona said, "but, always, we've got to give ourselves a chance. We're looking for positives."

Jon Rauch pitched the ninth for his third save, retiring Carl Crawford, Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez.

"The guys battled all day and gave us a chance to win," Rauch said.

Crawford, who signed a seven-year, $142 million contract in the offseason, went 0 for 5 and is batting just .137 (7 for 51).

He appeared to beat out a groundball leading off the first but was called out by first base umpire Paul Nauert.

"You definitely try to keep the negative thoughts out of your head and try to stay positive because you know you have four more at bats to go," Crawford said.

The game was the first between Francona and his former pitching coach, Farrell, who downplayed that matchup.

"I know they're out to beat us," he said, "and we're out to beat them."

The Blue Jays nearly took a 1-0 lead in the first when Adam Lind's drive down the right field line was ruled a two-run homer by Nauert. Francona disputed the call. The umpires reviewed it and ruled the ball foul. Lind then grounded out. It was the ninth replay review ever at Fenway Park and sixth that was overturned.

"It looked like we caught a big break and we got the 3-0 lead," Francona said. "We didn't have a lot of hits but we had two big ones and then we let it get away."

The Red Sox went ahead against Cecil when Pedroia hit his second homer of the season, a solo shot. Gonzalez then walked and Youkilis followed with his first homer. David Ortiz then walked, but Cecil retired his remaining 11 batters before being replaced by Jason Frasor to start the seventh.

The Blue Jays began chipping away in the fifth when Clay Buchholz walked Juan Rivera and Jayson Nix and both scored on Patterson's double. In the sixth, they tied the score at 3 when Snider doubled home Lind, who had walked.

In the seventh, Jenks retired just one of the five batters he faced.

Nix led off with a walk and took third on a single by Yunel Escobar before Patterson struck out. Bautista then singled Nix home, putting Toronto on top 4-3, and Escobar took second. Lind singled in Escobar, and with Aaron Hill at-bat, Bautista and Lind pulled off a double steal. Then Bautista scored and Lind took third on a wild pitch.

Hill followed with an RBI single, chasing Jenks, and Felix Doubront ended the inning by retiring the next two batters.

NOTES: The Red Sox also were 2-10 in 1925, 1927 and 1996. ... Before the game, Gonzalez signed a $154 million, seven-year contract running from 2012 to 2018. He already was signed for $6.3 million for this year. ... Escobar has reached base in all 10 games he's played. ... Patterson has six RBIs in four games since coming off the disabled list. ... Toronto placed IF Edwin Encarnacion on the bereavement list and recalled IF Mike McCoy and LHP Luis Perez from Triple-A Las Vegas. ... Lind's seventh inning single snapped an 0 for 15 slump. ... Buchholz tied his career high with five walks.

[Associated Press; By HOWARD ULMAN]

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