Marco Estrada (25) of the Toronto Blue Jays delivers a pitch in the second inning during MLB game action against the Boston Red Sox on April 10, 2016 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Toronto right-hander Marco Estrada, making his season debut after a sore back, threw seven shutout innings to halt the Blue Jays' four-game losing streak with a 3-0 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.
Josh Donaldson provided some late excitement with a booming home run, his fourth of the season, to the second deck in left-centre field off Boston reliever Noe Ramirez to open the eighth.
Estrada, in his 100th career start, struck out eight while limiting the Red Sox to five hits and two walks in an economical 91-pitch outing that featured 62 strikes. He exited on a strong note, retiring nine of the 10 last batters he faced before a Rogers Centre sellout of 46,158.
Estrada (1-0) out-duelled Boston knuckleballer Steven Wright, who blanked the Jays for 5 2/3 innings after giving up two runs in the first.
After three blown save opportunities by the bullpen and a difficult outing for knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, Toronto (3-4) needed some shutdown pitching. Estrada obliged, carrying on from where he left off last season.
The 32-year-old went 13-8 with a 3.13 ERA in 2015 with opposition batters hitting an AL-low .203 against him. He was rewarded with a two-year contract worth US$26-million.
Boston (3-2) could not make it three come-from-behind wins in a row as the Toronto bullpen, in the person of Drew Storen and Roberto Osuna, did its job. Osuna gave up a single but struck out three in the ninth for his third save.
It was a rare baseball weekend at the Rogers Centre with knuckleballers throwing both days – Dickey on Saturday and Wright on Sunday Wright, whom the Jays faced in Montreal at the end of the pre-season, was roughed up in a 32-pitch first inning that saw two passed balls by catcher Blake Swihart. Two singles, a passed ball and a walk loaded the bases. Kevin Pillar scored on an Edwin Encarnacion groundout and Donaldson followed him when second baseman Dustin Pedroia's throw to first missed the target.
Estrada, meanwhile, needed just nine for a 1-2-3 first.
The Jays snuffed out a threat in the third when Jose Bautista and Ryan Goins combined to throw out Pedroia at the plate as he tried to score from first on Xander Bogaerts' double. Goins, positioned on the foul line midway between first base and the outfield wall, nailed home plate with a perfect throw after Bautista retrieved the ball in the right-field corner.
Wright (0-1) settled down after the first and began to befuddle batters, including striking out Donaldson with a 64 m.p.h. curve ball in the third.
But after facing the minimum batters in the second and third, Wright loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth. A Darwin Barney groundout rescued the Red Sox.
Wright exited with two outs in the seventh. He gave up two runs (one unearned) on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
Boston was helped with three double plays on the day.
Coming into the game, Toronto had outscored the opposition 20-7 in the first five innings and been outscored 15-2 in the last three innings. Jays hitters had also struck out 66 times in the first six games, including at least 10 times in five of those outings.
Boston added five strikeouts to that Toronto total Sunday.
Prior to the game, the Jays placed reliever Frankin Morales on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to April 7, with left-shoulder fatigue. The move allowed Toronto to activate Estrada but left the Jays with just Brett Cecil as a left-handed option in the bullpen.
The Jays have an off day Monday before hosting the New York Yankees. The three-game series is the start of a 16-day stretch that also includes series against Boston and Baltimore away and Oakland and the White Sox at home.