In extra innings, Blue Jays hand Red Sox fifth straight loss – Boston Globe

There were no traces of a hangover.

“We turned the page on that,” Pedroia said. “Today’s different, so I don’t think anybody’s tense or anything like that.”

Even when the Sox took the field and fell into a 3-0 hole after two innings, they found a way to climb out of it.

But a day after collapsing with a seemingly insurmountable lead, the Sox had a much-needed rally short-circuit.

Long before Russell Martin’s solo homer in the 11th inning gave the Blue Jays a 5-4 victory, the Sox had chances to steal a win from Toronto the same way the Jays had done it to them the day before.

The Jays tagged starter Clay Buchholz for five hits and three runs in the third inning, including Kevin Pillar’s RBI single and Ryan Goins’s two-run base hit, then tacked on another run in the fourth on a single from Jose Reyes. The Sox found themselves in a ditch.

They climbed out of it by taking advantage of a couple of fidgety knuckleballs from Jays starter R.A. Dickey that went for passed balls in the fourth, capitalizing with an RBI single from Xander Bogaerts and a two-run single from Pablo Sandoval.

Then, a David Ortiz homer over the Jays bullpen in the sixth tied the score at 4.

But when the Sox were hunting for the go-ahead run in the seventh, crossed wires and tricky bounces sabotaged them.

Pedroia’s one-out single got them in business.

Looking to be aggressive, Pedroia got the call from Farrell to swipe second base on a 2-and-0 count with Brock Holt at the plate.

“It was a straight steal,” Pedroia said.

But then Holt got hold of a knee-high fastball over the plate, shooting it to shallow center.

Pedroia was already sliding into second when Pillar, the center fielder, was coming in on the ball.

Pedroia wasn’t sure if Pillar was going to make the catch, so he almost started back toward first base before seeing the ball fall in.

Even if he’d known the ball would have fallen in, Pedroia said there was no way he could have gone from first to third.

“If I’d went to third, I’d have been thrown out by 30 feet,” Pedroia said.

The next batter, Hanley Ramirez, sliced a low liner to the right side, but with Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak stretching to try to get a glove on it, Pedroia stopped in his tracks until he saw the ball get through to right field.

Instead of scoring from second, Pedroia held up at third.

Still, the Sox had the bases loaded with Ortiz and Bogaerts coming to the plate, and Farrell felt confident.

“Thinking we’ve got a chance to push at least one of those runs across,” Farrell said.

But Ortiz struck out swinging on five pitches, Bogaerts did the same on three, and the Sox watched their best chance slip away.

“We had a number of opportunities,” Farrell said. “We clawed back into this one to tie it. No bigger than the seventh inning when you’ve got bases loaded, middle of the order, and a big opportunity that we were unable to cash in.

“We came up empty. A missed opportunity.”

After the inning, Pedroia and Ramirez exchanged words while taking the field. By the look on his face, Ramirez, who didn’t speak to reporters after the game, was wondering why Pedroia didn’t score on the single.

“They were just communicating on some base-running stuff,” Farrell said. “That was just a situation inside the game that they were talking about.”

Four innings later, Martin got a 2-and-0 fastball from Sox reliever Matt Barnes and blasted it into the Monster seats, pushing the Jays to their 10th straight win while sending the Sox to their fifth straight loss.

“We’re still trying to climb back into games,” Farrell said. “Last night’s a difficult one to swallow after you build a lead as big as it was. They’re still competitive at-bats. Guys are taking the ball and giving everything they’ve got.”