Boston lefty Payton Tolle silenced the Blue Jays with a two-hit, eight-inning gem and Caleb Durbin hit an eighth-inning grand slam as the visiting Red Sox blanked Toronto 7-0 Thursday afternoon.
Durbin's 12th homer of the season came off Toronto reliever Chase Lee and helped the Red Sox (65-56) escape town with one win in the four-game set.
Despite the result Thursday afternoon, the Blue Jays have still won 11 of 17 to inch closer to the American League's third and final wild-card spot.
The three wins in the four-game series against the Red Sox were a good start in Toronto's 10-game stint against Boston, the New York Yankees and AL-leading Tampa Bay Rays. The Yankees begin a three-game series at Rogers Centre on Friday with Gerrit Cole, Cam Schlittler and Ryan Weathers the scheduled starters.
"You're going to run into good pitching," Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. "We're going to face three more good ones this weekend. Baseball's different every single day. I love the way we're playing. It was a really good series."
In his 91-pitch effort before 43,442 at Rogers Centre, Tolle (8-6) issued a game-opening walk to Charles McAdoo. He advanced to third after a bloop single to centre from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and George Springer ground out. But Kazuma Okamoto fouled out to end the inning.
Beginning with the Springer and Okamoto outs, the Red Sox southpaw faced the minimum of 23 Blue Jays (59-64) in his final 7 2/3 innings. Tolle surrendered only two hits with two walks and four strikeouts. He also got five outs on weak pop-ups in foul territory.
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Max Scherzer was delighted to become just the 139th pitcher in Major League Baseball history to toss 3,000 career innings Thursday.
The Toronto Blue Jays veteran starter also wasn't in the mood to celebrate.
"It's a really cool milestone," said Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young winner. "It just stinks that it comes in a loss. When I take to the mound, I'm competing to win. I want to come away with a win more than anything."
Scherzer (1-5) remains tied for 78th on the all-time wins list at 222 after getting the victory in his first start of the season March 31.
Scherzer was beset by a variety of injuries early, including an inflamed left ankle, back spasms and right forearm tendinitis.
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Because of an injury-riddled rotation, however, he kept pitching hurt until he was finally sidelined in late April, and again in June and July.
