George Springer homered and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a two-run double in the late innings as the visiting Toronto Blue Jays went on to a 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in Monday’s historic completion of a June 26 suspended game.
Boston catcher Danny Jansen made major league history as the first player to appear for both teams in the same game. He was batting for Toronto when the contest was suspended, then traded to the Red Sox on July 27 for three prospects.
Jansen was facing an 0-1 count on June 26 when the game was suspended by rain with one out in the top of the second inning. On Monday, Toronto’s Daulton Varsho pinch-hit for Jansen in the at-bat, and Jansen was behind the plate for Boston. Jansen was replacing catcher Reese McGuire, who is now at Triple-A Worcester for the Red Sox.
Varsho struck out in the second and finished 1-for-4. Jansen also was 1-for-4 for Boston.
Springer broke a scoreless deadlock with a towering one-out solo homer to left in the seventh, tagging Boston righty Nick Pivetta (4-5) with the loss. Pivetta fell despite picking up 10 strikeouts over six innings of relief. He allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits, walking none.
Zach Pop (1-2) recorded the win after Ryan Yarbrough threw 3 1/3 innings of two-hit, shutout relief. Chad Green struck out three in the ninth, working around a Masataka Yoshida double, to post his third save of the season.
Jansen recorded the first of just four Red Sox hits with a fifth-inning single, while Jarren Duran’s solo homer with one out in the eighth drove in the lone run for Boston.
The Blue Jays added to their lead with a three-run eighth, which began with Brian Serven’s one-out single into the left field corner. After an error on Spencer Horwitz’s fielder’s-choice grounder to first, back-to-back doubles by Guerrero and Addison Barger made it 4-0, with Guerrero’s double bringing home Serven and Ernie Clement and Barger’s plating Guerrero.
Neither team recorded a hit in the one-plus innings that were completed on June 26, though Toronto starter Yariel Rodriguez and Boston counterpart Kutter Crawford combined to issue three walks. Crawford struck out one in the top of the first.
Varsho got Toronto in the hit column when he banged a one-out single off the left field wall in the top of the fifth, but Boston right fielder Wilyer Abreu made a spectacular sliding catch to rob Leo Jimenez of a hit two batters later.
–Field Level Media
