Toronto Blue Jays runner Travis Snider scores on a sacrifice fly past Boston Red Sox catcher Victor Martinez (L) during the first inning of their MLB American League baseball game in Toronto August 11, 2010.MARK BLINCH/Reuters
The Boston Red Sox are proving to be quite the killjoy for the Toronto Blue Jays, who continue to look lost against a team that bedevils them like no other.
Shaun Marcum, who has traditionally pitched well against the Beantowners, buried his team early by getting pounded for season-highs of four homers and eight earned runs, while the offence was helpless against a dominant Clay Buchholz in a 10-1 thumping Wednesday.
Adam Lind had three hits but otherwise there were very few positives to speak of for the Blue Jays (59-54), who fell to 2-9 this season against the Red Sox (66-49) while squandering more of the optimism and excitement created by their recent strong play.
They won't have long to lick their wounds, as the series finale goes Thursday afternoon. Rookie Brad Mills will try to help the Jays avoid a three-game sweep against John Lackey.
Marcum (10-6) came in 5-2 with a 2.91 earned-run average in 13 career outings versus Boston but struggled with his location from the get-go and eventually cracked during a five-run fifth that blew things open before a crowd of 28,308.
The Blue Jays were already down 4-1 when J.D. Drew opened the fifth with a solo blast to right before a pair of singles were followed up by an Andrian Beltre three-run homer that sent Marcum to the showers.
Bill Hall took Marcum deep twice, a solo shot that put Boston ahead 2-1 in the second and a two-run drive that made it 4-1 in the fourth. The four homers off the right-hander matched the total he had surrendered over his previous six outings.
Marcum lost consecutive starts for just the second time this season and the numbers aren't pretty. Including his 5-1 defeat in New York to the Yankees last Wednesday, he's allowed 13 earned runs on 15 hits and four walks over his last 10 innings.
Hall added an RBI single off Brian Tallet to cap the fifth while Victor Martinez stroked a run-scoring base hit in the eighth off Casey Janssen to Buchholz (13-5), who allowed five hits and two walks in eight outstanding innings, some extra insurance he didn't need.
Buchholz allowed an unearned run in the first when Travis Snider reached on first baseman Mike Lowell's error, was sacrificed to second by Yunel Escobar, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Jose Bautista's fly ball to right, and then locked things down.
The Blue Jays never put more than one runner on against him, unable to do much with fastballs regularly hitting 96 m.p.h. and a curveball dropping into the zone at 80.
Buchholz, who turns 26 on Saturday, improved to 2-0 against the Jays this season and 5-3 with a 2.79 ERA against them in his career.
Notes: Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said the team is still looking at going with a six-man rotation in September but added the plan is "not a certainty. The biggest thing is the innings," he continued. "If the innings don't work out then you got to do something and nobody knows that until we get close." The Blue Jays, as a general guideline, try to limit their pitchers' year-to-year workload increase to about 20 per cent. ... Left-hander Brett Cecil threw a bullpen session Wednesday and said that he'll pitch Saturday at the Angels with three stitches in his right knee, but doesn't expect it to affect him. He was pushed back in the rotation after hurting himself trying to jump up four steps leading to the clubhouse and missed. "It really shouldn't set me back at all," he said. "I threw 100-plus pitches in my last two outings and it's only my second full year as a starter so I'm sure it has something to do with that than the knee." While he called the injury "something stupid" he feels the extra rest could be a blessing. "Going late into the season, any extra days I can get helps a lot," he said.