TORONTO --- Who said you should never under promise and over deliver?
That premise might apply to business and customer service, but it has no place in baseball. Consider Ryan Weber’s outing on Thursday a shining example of how delightful a development that can be.
There were limited expectations for a side-arming right-hander while making his first big league start in more than two years. Weber exceeded them by a country mile, notching his first career victory as a [...]
TORONTO --- Who said you should never under promise and over deliver?
That premise might apply to business and customer service, but it has no place in baseball. Consider Ryan Weber’s outing on Thursday a shining example of how delightful a development that can be.
There were limited expectations for a side-arming right-hander while making his first big league start in more than two years. Weber exceeded them by a country mile, notching his first career victory as a starter and sparking the Red Sox a four-game series win over the Blue Jays in the process.
Weber was in command through the first six innings and Boston’s offense flexed its muscles often enough to secure an 8-2 triumph at Rogers Centre.
School Day in the city saw a kid-filled crowd of 36,526 fans come through the turnstiles, and the noise they made was limited mostly to prompting from the video board in center field. Weber quieted those in the seats and Toronto’s bats by allowing just three hits and striking out four against no walks. Travis Lakins, Ryan Brasier and Hector Velazquez nailed down the final nine outs to preserve a milestone result for Weber.
Weber worked his way out of a jam in the second to set up the rest of his outing. Rowdy Tellez doubled to right, Brandon Drury looped a single to right and Freddy Galvis lined an RBI double down the line in left to give the Blue Jays a 1-0 lead. Toronto had runners at second and third with nobody out and looked poised to break this one open early.
Weber retired the next three batters in order to escape, inducing weak contact from each of them. Billy McKinney flied to shallow right, Danny Jansen popped to second and Jonathan Davis grounded to third to end the threat. Weber allowed just one more base runner over the next four frames and the Blue Jays didn’t score again until Justin Smoak’s solo homer against Velazquez in the ninth.
Weber threw 93 pitches over his six innings, matching his total from an April 26 start for Triple-A Pawtucket at Rochester. He hasn’t exceeded that number since totaling 96 pitches in a June 2018 start for Triple-A Durham, the top affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays. Weber’s previous eight starts in the big leagues covered just 40 innings, and he was stuck on 0-4 with four no decisions since a May 2017 outing here with the Mariners.
Weber took the rotation spot of Velazquez, who failed to get out of the first inning in a Saturday loss against the Astros at Fenway Park. The Red Sox shifted Velazquez back to the relief role he filled last season and opted to reward Weber for allowing just one earned run in three appearances since his May 6 promotion from Triple-A Pawtucket. Anything approaching this sort of performance will be welcomed until Nathan Eovaldi (right elbow) makes his eventual return from the injured list.
The Red Sox did the majority of their work at the plate in the late innings. They scored twice in the sixth, added single runs in the seventh and eighth and plated three more in the ninth, snapping what was a 1-1 tie. Sam Gaviglio was tagged with the loss, the second of three relievers to follow left-hander Clayton Richard in his season debut.
Boston racked up three straight hits against Gaviglio to lead off the sixth. Xander Bogaerts beat out an infield single and sprinted the rest of the way around when Rafael Devers lined an RBI double to the gap in right-center, making it 2-1. Steve Pearce followed by ripping an RBI single to left and the Red Sox had a two-run cushion.
Elvis Luciano was greeted by another three-hit binge from Boston hitters to open the seventh. Jackie Bradley Jr. sliced a double to left, Michael Chavis dropped a single into short right and Mookie Betts laced an RBI double to the corner in left, making it a 4-1 game. Eduardo Nunez grounded an RBI single through the left side against Luciano in the eighth to make it a four-run advantage.
The Red Sox roughed up Ryan Feierabend to finish the job in the ninth. Bogaerts doubled down the line in left and came all the way around from second when Devers chopped an RBI single over the mound. Pearce followed by crushing a two-run homer to the second deck in left, his first round-tripper of the season.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On Twitter: @BillKoch25