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BOSTON — First it was Scott Downs who fell flat on his face.
The Toronto Blue Jays postseason hopes took a nosedive right along with him.
A three-run eight-inning rally by the Red Sox, highlighted by the Toronto reliever's pratfall trying for a ground ball, propelled Boston to a 7-5 win Saturday before an ecstatic soldout gathering of 37,846 at Fenway Park.
It was a bitter loss for the Blue Jays to have to absorb after taking the first game of the doubleheader 8-1 in the afternoon.
Toronto Blue Jays right fielder Travis Snider makes the catch on a fly ball by Boston Red Sox's Jed Lowrie during the fourth inning in Boston on Saturday. (Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press)
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With Saturday's gut-wrenching setback — a game that the Jays led 5-2 after five innings — Boston has pretty much ended Toronto's slender hopes of gaining a postseason berth.
"It's a tough one for us," Jays' first baseman Lyle Overbay said. "I think we had to win three out of four to kind of get us back in it. But stranger things have happened."
Toronto entered the four-game weekend set realizing they needed to sweep or, at the very least, swipe three of four from Boston to realistically entertain any thoughts of overhauling the Red Sox and win the American League wild card playoff berth.
With the victory, Boston now leads the series 2-1 and the best the Blue Jays can hope for is a win in Sunday's finale to gain a split.
The Red Sox now hold a 7.5-game lead over Toronto in the wild card standing with the Blue Jays having just 13 games left to play in the regular season.
"It hurts," Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. "Anytime we lose one from now on it's going to hurt."
Especially so for Downs, who entered the game in the seventh inning with one out and Boston's Jacoby Ellsbury at third and promptly issued a walk to David Ortiz.
The Jays were leading 5-3 at the time.
Boston's Kevin Youkilis then hit what appeared to be a tailor-made double-play ground ball to Joe Inglett at second base and Inglett made the throw to Marco Scutaro covering at second to force Ortiz.
But Ortiz made a tough slide and clipped the foot of Scutaro who could not get a throw off to first to try to complete the double play. Ellsbury was able to cross the plate to cut the Toronto lead to 5-4.
In the house of horrors that was the eighth inning for Toronto, Jed Lowrie of the Red Sox singled to centrefield off Downs that brought Jason Bay home from second to tie the game at 5-5.
With Lowrie at third base and two out, Ellsbury beat a pitch into the ground down the right side that Downs would have had a play for had he not fallen face forward on the grass after jumping off the mound.
Ellsbury was safe at first while Lowrie came in for the go-ahead run.
Downs was replaced by Shawn Camp and he gave up a double to David Ortiz that brought the score to 7-5.
Downs, who sprained his right ankle in mid-August and missed some time, reinjured the same ankle when he slipped and fell said Gaston, adding he was not sure how seriously.
Downs, who said through a Blue Jays media relations person that he would talk to the media on Sunday about his outing, absorbed the loss to move to 0-3 on the year. It was also his fourth blown save.
It has been an especially rough time for Downs is has allowed five earned runs on five hits over 1 2/3-innings in his last two outings.
After a rocky start, in which he gave up two runs in the first inning, Toronto starter Jesse Litsch settled down, holding Boston to just five hits and three runs through 5.1-innings before departing with a 5-3 lead.
Boston scored both its runs in the first inning on the same play when Litsch uncorked a wild pitch with runners at second and third.
Ellsbury came in to score on the wild pitch and Dustin Pedroia was able to make it all the way home from second when Toronto catcher Gregg Zaun made a throwing error to Litsch, covering at the plate.
The Red Sox must have been watching too intently because in the Toronto second, Jed Lowrie — with Toronto runners at first and second — booted an easy grounder off the bat of Zaun for an error that loaded the bases.
The error opened the flood gates as the Jays would go on to scored five runs off just three hits to take a 5-2 lead.
"We've got to get [Sunday's] game," Overbay said.
