George Springer homered and Vladimir Guerrero hit a two-RBI double in the late innings as the visiting Toronto Blue Jays went on to a 4-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in Monday’s historic completion of a June 26 suspended game.
Boston’s loss spoiled catcher Danny Jansen making major league history as the first player to appear for both teams in the same game, having already batted for Toronto when the contest was suspended and then traded to the Red Sox on July 27 for three prospects.
Jansen had a 0-1 count on June 26 when the game was suspended by rain with one out in the top of the second inning. On Monday, Toronto’s Daulton Varsho pinch hit for Jansen in the at-bat, and Jansen was behind the plate for Boston. Jansen was replacing catcher Reese McGuire, now at the Red Sox’s Triple-A Worcester affiliate.
Varsho struck out and finished 1-for-4. Jensen also was 1-for-4 for Boston.
Springer broke the scoreless deadlock with a towering one-out homer to left in the seventh, tagging Boston righty Nick Pivetta (4-5) with the loss despite 10 strikeouts and just four hits allowed over six innings of relief.
Zach Pop (1-2) recorded the win after Ryan Yarbrough threw 3 1/3 innings of two-hit shutout relief. Chad Green struck out the side in the ninth around a Masataka Yoshida double to post his third save.
Jansen recorded the first of just four Red Sox hits on a fifth-inning single, while Jarren Duran’s solo homer with one out in the eighth drove in the lone run for Boston.
The Blue Jays added to their lead in a three-run eighth, which began with Brian Serven’s one-out single into the left field corner. After an error on Spencer Horwitz’s fielder’s choice grounder to first, back-to-back doubles by Guerrero and Addison Barger ballooned the score.
Neither team recorded a hit in the 1 1/3 innings that were completed on June 26, though Toronto’s Yariel Rodriguez and Boston counterpart Kutter Crawford combined to issue three walks. Crawford struck out one in the top of the first.
The strong pitching continued when the game resumed with a combined eight substitutions made between the two lineups.
Varsho got Toronto in the hit column when he banged a one-out single off the left field wall in the top of the fifth, but Boston right fielder Wilyer Abreu made a spectacular sliding catch to rob Leo Jimenez of a hit.