Walker Buehler struggles, Red Sox squander chances in loss to Blue Jays

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Jun 29, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — The losses just keep piling up for the Red Sox.

Sunday afternoon the Red Sox suffered their seventh loss in eight games, this time falling 5-3 to the Toronto Blue Jays. Starting pitcher Walker Buehler struggled again, allowing four runs over a listless four inning performance, and the offense squandered several key scoring chances late.

As a result the Red Sox (41-44) are once again three games under .500 and have now lost their last three series.

Since coming off the IL on May 20 Buehler hasn’t had any semblance of consistency. Things didn’t get off to a promising start on Sunday either when the Blue Jays tagged the veteran for back-to-back home runs out of the gate.

Addison Barger hit a solo shot to right field to start things off and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with a bomb to the Green Monster seats, making it 2-0 after the first. Buehler settled down for a bit and retired 10 straight batters following Guerrero’s homer, but with two outs in the fourth inning he completely lost his command.

After starting the fourth by drawing a flyout on an incredible diving catch by Ceddanne Rafaela, Buehler got a groundout and another ground-ball in the infield that was misplayed at third base by Nate Eaton. The play was ruled a single instead of an error, but it also allowed the inning to continue. From there Buehler proceeded to allow a walk, an RBI single by Andres Gimenez and two mores walks, the latter coming with the bases loaded to put the Blue Jays up 4-2.

Things could have gotten a lot worse had catcher Carlos Narvaez not picked off Tyler Heineman at first base with the bases still loaded to end the inning. Even still, Buehler’s day was done.

Buehler finished with four runs allowed over four innings on four hits, three walks and three strikeouts. The right-hander has now thrown four innings or fewer in four of his last five starts, and his ERA for the season sits at 6.45.

Offensively the Red Sox gave themselves a chance to compete, but couldn’t capitalize on several scoring chances that could have helped put them over the top.

After falling behind 2-0 early the club quickly tied the score, getting a solo home run from Narvaez that curled around Pesky’s Pole to lead off the second before Trevor Story singled, stole second and scored on Rafaela’s RBI double.

When Toronto took a three-run lead in the top of the fifth on Nathan Lukes’ RBI single, the Red Sox answered again with back-to-back doubles in the bottom of the inning by Nick Sogard and Romy Gonzalez to make it 5-3. But after the Red Sox got men at second and third with one out shortly afterwards they couldn’t convert, and the club fell short again in the sixth when Jarren Duran hit a triple down the right field line but was left stranded at third base.

The Red Sox once again got a runner in scoring position with one out in the eighth after Narvaez walked and advanced to second on a groundout, but Duran and Rafaela each flew out to end the inning. The Red Sox went quietly in the bottom of the ninth, and all told the Red Sox went 3 for 11 with runners in scoring position, and 0 for their last 6.

Kelly injured

Red Sox right-hander Zack Kelly was removed from Sunday’s game in the top of the sixth inning with right oblique tightness. Kelly had already pitched a full inning at the time of the injury, allowing one run in the fifth, but upon his return for the sixth he hit Andres Gimenez and was immediately attended to by the trainer and pulled from the game.

Kelly has posted a 5.56 ERA for the Red Sox in 17 MLB appearances this season.

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