Red Sox blast 5 home runs, Crochet goes 7 innings in 10-2 win over Blue Jays

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on Apr 29, 2025

Published in Baseball

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If the Red Sox could draw up the ideal game, it would probably look a lot like Tuesday night’s 10-2 series-opening victory in Toronto.

They received seven innings from their new ace, Garrett Crochet, and finally gave him the run support he deserved.

And they didn’t make a single error.

Crochet came into the series leading the rotation in deep outings averaging 6 2/3 innings over his first six starts of the season, but tied with Tanner Houck for the lowest runs of support per game (3.1). The league average is 4.1. The Red Sox had scored a combined 19 runs in his six starts.

Tuesday night was a different story. In a performance that would make David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez proud, the Boston bats blasted five home runs to knock Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis out of the game after just three innings.

The Red Sox led off each of Francis’ innings with a homer: leadoff man Jarren Duran went yard to begin the contest, followed by Kristian Campbell and Rafael Devers. At 111.1 mph, Devers’ third home run in four games was the hardest hit of the game by far. He also added to his MLB-leading walk total.

Alex Bregman also homered in the first, extending his hitting streak to nine games.

“Earlier in the year we kind of were pressing a little bit, weren’t coming through, but we’ve kind of taken a deep breath and started playing better baseball,” Bregman told NESN’s Jahmai Webster.

“He’s a complete hitter,” manager Alex Cora told reporters of Bregman.

In the third, Wilyer Abreu hit the club’s MLB-leading 12th three-run homer; no other team has more than six. At 422 feet, his homer tied Devers’ for the farthest hit of the game.

Aside from Ceddanne Rafaela, who was hitless in the contest, every member of the lineup contributed to the team’s 14 hits. Abreu and Bregman led the way with three apiece, and Campbell and Triston Casas each collected two. Boston also benefited from three walks, a hit-by-pitch (Trevor Story) and they only struck five times.

The 2009 deja vu continued, too. Two days after Duran became the first player to straight-steal home since Jacoby Ellsbury in April of that year, Abreu’s homer made Tuesday the first game in which the Red Sox homered five times within the first three innings since Sept. 8, 2009.

After issuing a career-worst five walks in his previous outing, Crochet bounced back in a big way. Making his final start of the month, he went seven innings and held the Blue Jays to two earned runs on four hits, three walks and six strikeouts on 94 pitches (62 strikes).

Aside from a two-run blast by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Blue Jays couldn’t do a lick of damage against the Sox southpaw. By the end of his outing, Crochet had lowered his ERA to 2.05 and reached 50 strikeouts, second most in the American League.

“Just felt like I was competitive all the way through,” Crochet told reporters postgame. “I know I still had the three walks, but they’re not like my walks in the starts past, they were competitive all the way through.”

After taking a four-frame break from scoring, the Red Sox tacked on some insurance. Duran drove in run No. 8 with an RBI groundout in the eighth, and Campbell’s RBI double and Casas’ RBI groundout plated a pair in the ninth to reach the double-digit threshold.

Luis Guerrero pitched a 1-2-3 eighth — he hasn’t allowed an earned run in his first 12 big league games, tied for the second-longest streak to begin a Red Sox career — and lefty Brennan Bernardino slammed the door with a 1-2-3 ninth.

The only truly memorable moments for the Blue Jays came courtesy of their ballpark special — $1 hot dogs — and their Gold Glove center fielder. Activated from the injured list earlier in the day, Daulton Varsho made a jaw-dropping play to rob Duran of a big hit. Racing toward the wall in center, Varsho fell to the ground, barrel-rolled, and reached out his glove behind his back to make the catch at the last moment.

“That was incredible, that was one of the best catches I’ve ever seen in my life,” Bregman told reporters. “I wish he wouldn’t have, because it would’ve been a nice triple for Jarren, but you got to tip your hat to him there. That was an unbelievable play.”

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