Blue Jays’ Berrios surrenders 3 homers in shutout loss to Red Sox | CBC Sports

Jarren Duran had a two-run homer and Masataka Yoshida a solo shot in the sixth inning as the visiting Boston Red Sox downed the Toronto Blue Jays 5-0 on Friday.

Justin Turner’s home run opened the scoring as Boston (41-42) snapped a five-game losing skid. He drove in another run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth.

James Paxton (4-1) of Ladner, B.C., was superb for the Red Sox, striking out seven over 7 2/3 scoreless innings. He only gave up three hits before giving way to relievers Chris Martin and Kaleb Ort.

Jose Berrios (8-6) gave up four runs on five hits despite striking out eight and issuing no walks over six innings for the Blue Jays (45-38).

Relievers Trent Thornton and Mitch White came on after Berrios, giving up a run over three innings.

Toronto has lost all five of its games against Boston so far this season.

The Blue Jays have a winning record against every division in Major League Baseball this season, except their own. Toronto is 7-18 against its American League East rivals in 2023, including a four-game sweep in Boston to start May.

“That was a great series in Boston. I had a great time,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider, tongue firmly planted in cheek. “They can hit, they can put runs up, they stole a lot of bases off of us. They’re dangerous.”

Vladimir Guerrero Jr., brought the 37,218 at Rogers Centre to their feet in the first inning when he sent a 96.6 mile-per-hour four-seam fastball from Paxton to deep centre field. Duran jumped to catch the ball just over the outfield wall, flexing and shouting after making the run-saving grab.

Turner finally got to Berrios in the fifth, leading off the inning with a home run. Turner’s 12th of the season came on a full count and travelled 379 feet into the Blue Jays’ bullpen.

Both Berrios and Paxton had been humming along until Turner’s home run, with the first four innings of the game taking less than an hour.

Berrios continued to struggle in the sixth, giving up three runs in quick succession.

Connor Wong led off the inning with a double and then Duran scored him with a towering home run to centre field. He smashed an 85.4 m.p.h. change-up from Berrios 417 feet.

Although Berrios ended the inning with back-to-back strikeouts, the damage had been done and Thornton came out of the bullpen for the next inning.

Turner tacked on another run in the eighth with a sacrifice fly to centre field, giving Alex Verdugo ample time to score from third for a 5-0 lead.

Yusei Kikuchi (7-2) gets the start as Toronto continues its three-game series with the Red Sox.

Boston will send Kutter Crawford (2-4) to the mound for the matinee.