American League East aces will battle when the host Boston Red Sox continue their three-game weekend set with the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday afternoon.
After late-inning magic led the Red Sox to a 6-4 win Friday in the opener, right-hander Sonny Gray (12-1, 2.48 ERA) will start for Boston after securing three victories during the team’s franchise-record-tying 15-game winning streak, which ended on Wednesday vs. the Baltimore Orioles.
“We are (enjoying the ride),” Boston second baseman Anthony Seigler said. “We’re obviously living in the moment, but now it’s onto the next. Turn the page quick and get ready for Saturday.”
It is easy to have that mentality when the momentum continues with Gray, who remains undefeated since April 14 entering a clash with Toronto right-hander Dylan Cease (6-5, 2.67 ERA).
Gray has nine consecutive quality starts, including a 6-1 win Sunday over the Tampa Bay Rays in which he struck out five batters across six innings of one-run ball.
In that start, Gray did not have his best stuff. He landed only 49 of his 91 pitches for strikes. Still, he found a way.
“Just as a pro does, he got through the outing and gave us six great innings,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said. “So it was a gutsy outing.”
Gray is 4-4 with a 2.99 ERA in 16 career appearances (15 starts) vs. the Blue Jays. This season, he pitched seven innings in a no-decision against them on June 18 as Boston lost 4-3.
Seigler became the latest in a long line of heroes during Boston’s hot stretch, recording his first career four-hit game on Friday. He cranked a leadoff home run before adding two doubles and a single, finishing a triple shy of the cycle.
Ceddanne Rafaela also went deep, and Romy Gonzalez’s pinch-hit RBI double in the eighth inning was the difference as the Red Sox overcame losing a 4-0 lead. Toronto broke the shutout bid on Kazuma Okamoto’s three-run homer in the seventh before knotting the score in the eighth.
It was a close call, but with Tyler Rogers unavailable out of the bullpen after pitching in the previous two games, the Blue Jays faltered late and now have lost five of their past six games to return to 10 games below .500.
In a radio interview before Friday’s game, Blue Jays manager John Schneider addressed being in that position as a reigning pennant winner.
“Coming off the year we had, it makes everything that much louder this year. We’ve earned those expectations, and fans expect them to be met,” he said. “You learn to shrug off the noise. I know that people who are taking shots at me … can’t do what I do, and they can’t do what my players can do.”
Despite the loss Friday, it was a historic night for Okamoto. With his 23rd homer of the season, he passed Shohei Ohtani for the most home runs by a Japanese-born rookie in MLB history.
Cease, meanwhile, had pitched back-to-back scoreless starts before suffering a 7-1 loss Monday to the Tampa Bay Rays, allowing five runs (three earned) on seven hits and striking out seven over six innings. The AL All-Star Game starter surrendered his first two home runs since May in that outing.
“It’s on us. It’s not the coaches. It’s not anybody else,” Cease said after that game. “We’re just not playing up to our potential right now.”
Saturday will mark Cease’s ninth career start against the Red Sox — he has gone 2-2 with a 5.31 ERA — including his third in 2026. He pitched five shutout innings in a 6-1 victory June 16 at Fenway Park, where he has a 1.25 ERA in four career games.
–Field Level Media
