Jose Molina #8 of the Toronto Blue Jays consoles teammate Brandon Morrow #23 in a game against the Boston Red Sox in MLB action on June 11, 2011 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)Claus Andersen/Getty Images
Utility infielder Mike McCoy pitched the ninth inning and had the Toronto Blue Jays second 1-2-3 inning of the game.
That is how bad it was for Toronto on Saturday as the Boston Red Sox extended their win streak to a season-best eight games with a 16-4 victory.
"When we had Mike McCoy on the mound in the ninth inning I think it's fair to say it wasn't one of our better days on the mound," Blue Jays manager John Farrell said. "We were just trying to get through the last inning without going to another pitcher so I asked him and he was willing to volunteer to go out and pitch."
Jason Varitek hit a three-run homer and drove in four runs for the Red Sox. David Ortiz also hit a three-homer in a seven-run fifth inning as the Red Sox rapped out 18 hits for the game. Edwin Encarnacion hit a two-run homer for Toronto.
The Red Sox slammed right-hander Brandon Morrow (2-4) for 10 hits and nine runs in 4 1-3 innings and 103 pitches. Morrow's earned-run average soared to 5.63. Boston right-hander John Lackey (4-5) allowed six hits and four runs in six innings while striking out eight.
McCoy is the fifth position player to pitch for Toronto and the first since Frank Menechino on Aug. 28, 2004, against the New York Yankees.
McCoy has pitched three times in the minors, one inning in 2009, one in 2005 and 3 2-3 innings in 2004 and has a 1.59 earned-run average for those outings.
Earlier this season he told Farrell during a game that he could throw an inning and save the bullpen. "So he knew," McCoy said. " One time in low-A I went 3 2-3, the bullpen got burned and we ended up tying it up and I threw a lot of pitches and my arm hurt real bad the next day."
The crowd cheered him for his performance.
"You just try not to do too much and kind of stay within yourself," said McCoy who started the game at second base. "And throwing softly is more effective against big-league hitters who are used to seeing 90 and I'm throwing 72, 73, hitters get themselves out usually.
"I threw a couple of sliders just to mix it up and get them out front a little bit. It's pretty exciting, except for the loss."
It at least gave Blue Jays fans something to enjoy.
The Red Sox (38-26), who have the best record in the American League, also had a seven-game win streak from May 13-20. Toronto (32-33) dropped below .500 for the first time since May 27 and is 6 1-2 games behind Boston in the AL East.
Morrow took a hard comebacker of his leg in the second inning but said it had no bearing on his outing.
"I'll have a bruise tomorrow but it wasn't bothering me at all," he said.
Morrow thought he pitched well, despite the scoreline.
"It's really tough to put a finger on it right now," Morrow said. "I wasn't falling behind too many guys. I was in pretty good counts. They hit some pretty good pitches, some flares, some broken bats. They got the big hit. That's probably one that was hittable, it was elevated down the middle, that was the home run (by Varitek).
Boston struck for four runs in the third. Adrian Gonzalez drove in one run with a double. After Ortiz was walked to load the bases, Morrow hit Jed Lowrie with a pitch for the second run. Carl Crawford hit a sacrifice fly and former Blue Jay Marco Scutaro singled in the fourth run on his way to a four-hit game.
"They put a lot of good swings on some fastballs up in the zone," Farrell said. "I thought in the third inning, we walk Ortiz to set up a potential double play and the 0-2 pitch that hit Jed in the leg, kind of opened up the floodgates a little bit."
Morrow walked the No. 9 hitter Varitek to start the fourth and he scored on Dustin Pedroia's double. Pedroia also doubled in two runs against Casey Janssen in the three-run eighth.
The Blue Jays cut the lead to 5-2 with a pair in the bottom of the fourth. Adam Lind doubled with one out, Jose Molina walked with two out and Rajai Davis doubled them home.
The Red Sox put the game away with a seven-run fifth, led by Varitek's third homer of the season that ended Morrow's start.
"When you're in there and in a situation you're just trying to get the run in and just up there battling because Morrow's got really good stuff," Varitek said. "And I just somehow was able to get a good part of the bat and his velocity carried the ball out."
Ortiz followed suit against Jason Frasor with his 16th of the season. J.D. Drew drove in the first run of the inning with a single.
"I'll sit there all day if they want to keep swinging like that, that's fine," Lackey said. "That's not something I'm ever going to complain about for sure."
The Red Sox tacked on a run in the sixth on Varitek's single, his fourth RBI of the game. Encarnacion hit his second homer of the season after Lind singled to make the score 13-4. It was the first time this season Encarnacion has had more than one RBI in a game. He has 12 for the season and these were his first since May 29 when he hit his first homer of the season.
Lackey and manager Terry Francona were encouraged by the pitcher's outing.
"He had some depth to his pitches," Francona said. "You don't ever hear me sit here and worry about strikeouts. I care about them getting outs, but I thought the swings and misses were good, I thought he was down, he threw some breaking balls that made them miss and got some fastballs by them."
Lackey added: "I felt good. I felt like it was a step forward, still building some arm strong I thought the guys swung the bats pretty good, made it pretty easy on me."
Notes: Attendance at Rogers Centre was 39,437. .....Toronto right-fielder Jose Bautista who has 20 homers was 0-for-3 with a walk and has not hit a home run in 13 games. .....Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar was back in the lineup Saturday after missing three games with a bruised left quadriceps muscle suffered while stealing second base in Tuesday's game at Kansas City. ...Toronto second baseman Aaron Hill was rested and did not start Saturday and McCoy took his place. ...Boston third baseman Kevin Youkilis was given the day off, ...The series ends Sunday with Toronto rookie right-hander Kyle Drabek (4-4, 4.98) going against Jon Lester (8-2, 2.98 ERA).