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Garrett Crochet pitches 8 sharp innings as Red Sox beat slumping Blue Jays 7-1
The win puts the Red Sox on the cusp of clinching their first playoff berth since 2021.
TORONTO (AP) — Garrett Crochet pitched eight shutout innings, Masataka Yoshida and Carlos Narváez homered, and the Boston Red Sox beat the slumping Toronto Blue Jays 7-1 on Wednesday night.
Assured a playoff berth, the Blue Jays dropped into a tie with the New York Yankees atop the AL East at 90-68 with four games left. Toronto holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Trevor Story had three hits as Boston (87-71) won for the fourth time in five games and inched closer to securing an American League wild card.
Crochet (18-5) struck out six, walked none and allowed three hits to win his fifth straight decision.
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Isiah Kiner-Falefa homered off Payton Tolle in the ninth for Toronto.
The Blue Jays lost for the sixth time in seven games. They’ve scored one run or fewer in all six of those defeats.
Toronto slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was ejected by plate umpire Gabe Morales for arguing after he struck out looking in the seventh. Hitting coach David Popkins was tossed for arguing from the dugout.
Blue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer allowed four runs and 10 hits in five innings, including three runs on five consecutive hits in the first.
Scherzer (5-5) is winless in five starts. The three-time Cy Young Award winner allowed a season-worst seven runs and got only two outs in his previous start at Kansas City last Friday.
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Yoshida’s leadoff homer in the fifth was his third of 2025.
Narváez made it 7-0 with a three-run drive off Jose Berríos in the eighth, his 15th.
Wilyer Abreu ended the game by throwing out slow-footed Alejandro Kirk at first base on a sharp one-hopper to right field.
Crochet leads the majors with 255 strikeouts.
Boston RHP Brayan Bello (11-8, 3.34 ERA) is scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale. Toronto pushed back Shane Bieber to Friday and hadn’t announced a replacement.
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