 allowed three runs in five innings.Red Sox lefty Drew Pomeranz (16-6) had his shortest start of the season, giving up five runs and seven hits in two innings. He had only lost once in his last 18 outings, holding opponents to three runs or fewer in 16 of those games.Betts drove in two runs for the Red Sox, going over the 100-RBI mark for the second consecutive season. Andrew Benintendi had a pinch-hit solo homer.Roberto Osuna got three outs for his 38th save.Toronto slugger Jose Bautista was ejected by plate umpire Chad Fairchild after getting called out on strikes.Coming off an 8-1 road trip that helped them maintain control of the AL East, the Red Sox fell into a hole early.The Blue Jays chased Pomeranz with four runs in the second to take a 5-2 lead when Hernandez and Donaldson each hit a two-run double.Donaldson homered about a third of the way up a light stanchion in left-center in the first.TRAINER'S ROOMRed Sox: Nunez fouled off a pitch his second time up and went to the ground in pain. He finished the at-bat with a lineout to third, but barely got out of the box and was unable to put much weight on his knee. . Betts grabbed his left hand in pain after a bloop single and pointed at it while talking with a trainer.MOOKIE'S MILESTONESThe 24-year-old Betts has 101 RBIs and 98 runs scored this season. Last year, the right fielder drove in 113 and scored 122. The only other Red Sox player with multiple 100/100 seasons before turning 25 was Hall of Famer Ted Williams from 1939-42.UP NEXTBlue Jays: LHP J. A. Happ (9-11, 3.64 ERA) is set to pitch the second game of the series Tuesday night. He lost his last start Thursday after winning the previous three.Red Sox: LHP Chris Sale (17-7, 2.75) takes his major league-leading 300 strikeouts to the mound. Sale appears to be in a close race with Cleveland ace Corey Kluber for the AL Cy Young Award.---More baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Red Sox, inching toward division title, start series with Jays 35m ago• 3 min read BOSTON -- Drew Pomeranz can't pitch the Boston Red Sox Red Sox into an American League East championship with a win over the Toronto Blue Jays in the opener of a three-game series Monday night.However, the left-hander can bring his team to the brink.The Red Sox enter the final week of the regular season with a magic number of three. Any combination of Boston wins and losses by the New York Yankees adding up to three and the Red Sox will have back-to-back division titles for the first time in franchise history -- and the Yankees, currently five games out, would play in the AL wild-card game.Boston finishes with seven straight games at home, the last four against the Houston Astros, a likely opponent in the American League Division Series -- with the chance of having nine straight games against the same team."We love Fenway Park," Red Sox manager John Farrell said Sunday before his team finished off an 8-1 road trip by completing a sweep of a three-game series in Cincinnati. "Our guys thrive on the environment there. We've had a good year there from a record standpoint."Our team's built for that ballpark. It'll be good to get home and sleep in our own beds. To get back home, to play in Fenway, it'll be good to finish the regular season there." No pitcher on Farrell's staff has enjoyed Fenway more than Pomeranz, who takes a 9-2 record and 3.11 ERA at home as he faces Brett Anderson on Monday night.Chris Sale gets the hype, but Pomeranz, 3-0 with a 1.93 ERA against Toronto this season, also has been a rock in the rotation.Pomeranz (16-5, 3.15 ERA) is 13-2 with a 2.61 ERA in his past 22 starts and is 7-1 with a 2.62 in 13 starts since the All-Star break. He has allowed three runs on 12 hits over 18 1/3 innings in his past three starts.The last-place Blue Jays just took two out of three from the Yankees and are making their second trip to Fenway this month.Jose Bautista, 36, had two hits in what was likely his final home game at Toronto on Sunday, his teammates waiting in the dugout as he took the field alone for the first inning. The Blue Jays are expected to decline Bautista's $17 million option for 2018."The focus was Jose today -- what he's done in this town, for this organization and really the country," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "He helped rebuild the team. He was the face of the franchise for a number of years, and he did it the right way." The Jays are just 4-12 against the Red Sox this season -- and Anderson (3-4, 7.15 ERA overall) is coming off a terrible start.After fighting a blister in his previous outing, he lasted just 1 1/3 innings and gave up eight runs on seven hits on Wednesday against the Kansas City Royals. He is 5-4 with a 3.32 ERA against the Red Sox lifetime (0-1 this year) -- 2-2 with a 5.54 in five career starts at Fenway.By the way, the two lefties, Pomeranz and Anderson, were once traded for each other.The current Jays roster has a cumulative .198 batting average against Pomeranz. Justin Smoak is 4-for-9 (.444) and Darwin Barney 4-for-12 (.333), but Steve Pearce is 0-for-7, Josh Donaldson 1-for-12 (.083), Kendrys Morales 1-for-8 (.125) and Kevin Pillar 2-for-13 (.154).Bautista, however, has hit 25 homers in 72 career games at Fenway.For the Red Sox, Mitch Moreland is 3-for-8 (.375) and Dustin Pedroia 6-for-18 (.333) against Anderson. The current Red Sox are 16-for-50 (.320) against Anderson, but without a homer and with just one RBI.
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