Ray (8 K's) shuts down Red Sox in G1 win

Robbie Ray stared down a pair of self-made tricky situations early against the Red Sox on Wednesday, and his ability to wriggle out of them was crucial to a 4-1 victory in Game 1 of a split doubleheader at Fenway Park.

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Ray, who took a loss against the Red Sox his last time out, faced immediate trouble with runners on second and third and none out in the first inning. He also loaded the bases with none out in the second, but Boston could only convert one run from all that traffic.

“It was a huge momentum boost,” Ray said of escaping the second. “Not just for the team, but for me as well. It was a moment for me to say, ‘All right, this is the day it’s gonna be. I’m gonna grind this out.’”

Walks haven’t harmed Ray this season the way they have in the past -- his 2.2 walks-per-nine-innings rate is just more than half his career mark -- but his leadoff walk to Kiké Hernández eventually produced the game’s first run. Hernández, who entered Wednesday with a .250/.339/.667 slash line in 56 career plate appearances against Ray, had a chance to do far more damage with the bases juiced an inning later -- but Ray, with a grunt, hummed a fastball above the zone for strike three.

In that second frame, Ray also fanned Michael Chavis and got Rafael Devers to fly out on a full count to strand a trio of runners. He strutted off the field, earning some emphatic high-fives from the Blue Jays’ dugout.

For good measure, Ray cleaned up one more mess in the fifth inning -- but this one was hardly his fault. A sun-soaked fly ball fell between Randal Grichuk and George Springer in right-center field for a hard-luck double, and J.D. Martinez followed by singling on a soft liner (66.3 mph, per Statcast) to left field. But Ray dug in to strike out Hunter Renfroe -- Ray’s third full-count punchout of the day -- and get a flyout from Christian Vázquez to keep the Red Sox quiet.

“The sun was tough today, the wind was tough,” Ray said. “Everything was kind of playing into the game. So it definitely felt like I had to will my way through this one and really dig deep.”

The Red Sox’s offense has a tendency to make opposing pitchers grind for outs, but Ray insisted his stuff felt good from the jump. He established the fastball early and commanded his offspeed stuff late, which helped him nab six of his eight strikeouts over his final three innings.

The Blue Jays did their part on offense, led by a three-RBI day from Grichuk, who singled and homered. Toronto’s bottom four in the batting order hadn’t produced an RBI in its previous three games (i.e. since Springer was moved to the leadoff spot and Bo Bichette became the cleanup hitter), so the spark from Grichuk was a welcome sight.