Red Sox 10, Blue Jays 2: Five-homer ambush sends Toronto to latest blowout loss

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For weeks now, the Blue Jays have been in desperate search of power and the game-changing instant offence that comes with it.

All they needed to do on Tuesday’s latest study session on the benefits was watch the visiting Boston Red Sox go to work.

Two homers in the first, another in the second and two more in the third was quite the display from the visitors, triggering yet another dispiriting Blue Jays defeat.

This time the final blowout tally was 10-2 as the home side was defeated for the eighth time in nine games (and third in a row), dropping to 13-16 on the season. As much as hitters are pressing to work their way out of the troubles that have made so many of those recent losses feel lopsided, seeing their Red Sox counterpoints feast on Toronto starter Bowden Francis wasn’t an ideal mood setter for this six-game home stand.

The Boston assault began when leadoff hitter Jarren Duran sent the third pitch of the game over the wall in right centre. Two batters later, Alex Bregman went yard with a 410-foot bomb over the left field.

From there, the mood was set.

Though Vlad Guerrero Jr. was able to launch his third homer of the season in the third inning — a line-drive shot to the deepest part of centre field — the Jays now have a minus-26 home run differential, by far the worst in the major leagues.

“They were kind of all over everything,” Jays manager John Schneider said of Francis’s struggles. “They hit some balls hard. Tough one for him tonight.”

It’s reached a crisis for a team at wit’s end to develop any semblance to offensive traction.

On their recently completed road six-game road trip (the one with a 1-5 record through three games each in Houston and the Bronx), the Jays reached four runs in just one game, a total they’ve managed just twice in their past 11 now. It’s tough sledding at the best of times, but when the opposition leaps out to a sizeable early lead — as the Red Sox did on Tuesday — the frustration roots deeper.

In their latest three-game losing streak, which dropped the Jays to a season-worst three games below .500 they’ve been outscored by a ridiculous 26-5 count.

“It’s been a rough stretch, but it’s extremely early in the season,” said Schneider, who must be wearying of the struggles to score and thus having to see his team stay in touch in ball games. “You don’t want to fall too far behind. You’ve got to battle through this and stuff over the course of the year, multiple times.

“The guys are busting their ass. I think everyone wants to be the one to kind of stop it. Until it happens, you’ve got to just continue to pull for one another.”

As for Monday’s starter Francis, either he’s off form or opposing hitters are starting to get a feel for the stuff that was so brilliant late in 2024. Francis has now allowed 11 homers in his six starts this season and nine in his past four.

“Execution, I think,” Francis said when asked about his struggles. “I think it was just one of those days where they hit some of my mistakes right away, didn’t miss. I think they just executed when I didn’t execute.”

WELCOME BACK, VARSHO

The game was headed to blowout status when, in his first game back after recovering from shoulder surgery, the Jays Gold Glove centre fielder Daulton Varsho made a circus-style grab that will be on highlight reels for years to came.

A player renowned for making spectacular plays at the wall, Varsho went from calamity to outrageous in retiring Duran with his fourth-inning stunner.

Tracking the loud fly ball to the centre-field wall, Varsho tripped over his own feet, landing on his rear end. But sublime fielder that he is, Varsho kept his eye on the ball and made the back-handed snag to record the out.

The 2025 Gold Glove winner at his position, Varsho has been known for his spectacular plays. And it came at a welcome time for a Rogers Centre crowd of 28,045 still stunned from the five-run homer barrage already unleashed by the Bosox.