Bogaerts' grand slam lifts Red Sox over Jays

Saturday’s 6-2 triumph over Toronto via Xander Bogaerts’ 10th inning grand slam made it 67 victories, 30 defeats, with no end in sight to the metronome beat of success.

BOSTON - For all the things the Red Sox did wrong Saturday, it still seemed inevitable that they would beat the Blue Jays.

 That’s the way it has gone all year long for Boston. When the Sox can’t find a way to win a game, the opposition finds a way to lose it. Saturday’s 6-2 triumph over Toronto via Xander Bogaerts’ 10th inning grand slam made it 67 victories, 30 defeats, with no end in sight to the metronome beat of success.

 Boston has not lost two straight games since June 19-20 in Minnesota. Since then the Red Sox are 18-4 and their overall record has them on a pace to win 112 games.

 That seems like a ridiculously high number, but as the season has progressed it has gone from a best-case scenario outcome to something entirely possible given the way they are able to conjure up victories from the thickening summer air.

 When Boston began the season 17-2 it seemed to be one of those freakish statistical aberrations, like Daniel Nava hitting .303 in 2013. But considering that the Sox were 17-2 in two in their first 19 games and are 16-3 in their most recent, maybe this is just their reality.

 Saturday’s victory saw them trailing, 2-1, going into the bottom of the ninth. They tied it when Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit consecutive doubles with nobody out, then won it after Blue Jays manager John Gibbons intentionally walked J.D. Martinez to load the bases with one out in the tenth.

 Bogaerts hit a 2-0 pitch from Chris Rowley onto the platform that surrounds the flagpole in left-center.

 Now, considering that Martinez is baseball’s leading home run hitter and had hit one earlier in the afternoon, that seemed like reasonable strategy. Except that Bogaerts is and always has been a deadly batter with the bases loaded and wound up hitting his third grand slam of the season and fourth of his career.

 He is 23 for 68 (.338) with the bases full for his career and has delivered 69 RBIs.

 “I got two balls and said, ‘I’m gonna swing at anything close,” Bogaerts said. “The first two pitches were a little in and he was probably trying to get me to be aggressive and hit into a double play but I was patient. He got one up there, and I hit it real good but I didn’t expect for it to go out.

 “I knew it was at least a sacrifice fly.”

 Like Mookie Betts on Thursday night, Bogaerts showed his glee as he toured the bases.

 “It was amazing,” Bogaerts said, adding, “A walkoff homer is different, a walkoff grand slam is even more. It’s a homer and you help your team win. Running the bases, I didn’t even remember I hit a homer to be honest.”

 Seeing the Blue Jays walk Martinez to get to him didn’t motivate Bogaerts, he said. The walkoff homer could be credited to his walkup music, which was loud and inspiring.

 There was no walkup music for Boston’s last walkoff grand slam. That happened on Aug. 14, 2000 versus the Rays when Rico Brogna produced a 7-3 victory, and the first in extra innings since Jim Rice beat Oakland, 13-9, in the 10th on July 4, 1984.

 Martinez’ homer in the fourth gave the Red Sox a 1-0 lead and the way Eduardo Rodriguez was pitching, that almost looked like it would be enough. He was working on one of the best performances of his career when he tripped over Lourdes Gurriell Jr. while covering first base in the sixth inning.

 Rodriguez had to leave with a sprained ankle — it looked bad, according to manager Alex Cora — and while Heath Hembree got out of the sixth with the Sox still ahead, Joe Kelly made sure the Blue Jays had a 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.

 Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes and Craig Kimbrel kept the Jays from scoring after that and when Mookie Betts hit a one-out ground ball to shortstop that went through Gurriell’s legs for an error, that Red Sox feeling took over at Fenway again.

 Bogaerts carried that feeling with him to the plate, and for the duration of his 360-foot journey around the bases.