Botown Sweeps Jays

The normally high powered offense of Boston was shut down for the first two games against the Toronto Blue Jays.  The Sox could not find an answer to the outstanding pitching that Toronto was tossing against them but somehow they found just enough offense to win the first two and then let the bats carry them to the sweep in the third and final game of the home series.

Game 1         Boston  3     Toronto  1

Paul Mirabella pitched strong baseball for the Blue Jays and was staked to an early 1 run lead in the second on an RBI single by J.P. Arencibia of Boston's starter Mike Nagy.  The Red Sox finally got to the Blue Jay starter in the 6th when Dustin Pedroia led the inning off with a solo HR to left center field.  Boston got to the Jay's Mike Timlin in the 8th who had come on in relief of Mirabella as they put 4 singles together for 2 runs.  Jonathon Papelbon came on in the 9th to nail down the 3-1 win.

Game 2      Boston  1      Toronto   0

Game 2 provided a great pitching duel for those fans who like their baseball that way.  Toronto's Gustavo Chacin and Boston's Frank Sullivan hooked up in a nail bitter of game as both starter's shut down the other team's offense. The only blemish on Chacin's resume for the day came in the 2nd inning when Nomar Garciaparra hit a 2 out drive over the Green Monster for the only run of the game.  Boston managed to get only one other runner as far as second base and Toronto left the only runner to reach third on the day stranded there in the third inning.  Papelbon again came on in the 9th for his 2nd save of the series.

Game 3     Boston 6     Toronto  3
As the series moved to Toronto, Boston finally got their offense untracked early in the game as they scored in 4 of the first 5 innings to take a 5-1 lead through 5 innings highlighted by a solo homerun by Tony Conigliaro in the 4th.  To the Blue Jays' credit they scrapped their way back into the game with single runs in the 5th, 6th, and 7th to trail by only 2.  By the end of 6 innings both starters were gone, Curtis for the Sox and Guzman for the Jays.  Dave Steib was into his 4th inning of work when Boston got the insurance run in the 8th on an RBI single by Pedroia.  Sparky Lyle got the 2 inning save for Boston as the Sox completed the 3 game sweep.