» Easton Lucas shuts down Red Sox as Jays win back-to-back at Fenway

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If Easton Lucas was daunted by his first appearance at famed Fenway Park on Tuesday night — and just the second start of his big league career — he sure didn’t show it.

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The upstart Blue Jays lefty looked like he has been pitching in challenging situations all of his career, in fact.

Lucas struck out four of the first five Red Sox batters he faced on Tuesday night and retired the first eight. He struck out eight Boston batters in total in going 5.1 innings, allowing just three hits in the Jays 6-1 win over their division rival.

It was just the latest stellar starting pitching effort for a Jays team waiting for its offence to fully fire up and one that improved its record to 7-5 on the young season. And somewhat incredulously midway through a 10-game road trip that started with three losses to the Mets, the Jays moved back into first place in the AL East.

Filling injured Max Scherzer’s spot in the rotation, Lucas served up a pleasant (and once again timely) surprise in his first start last week, throwing five shutout innings at home in a 5-2 win over the Washington Nationals.

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And he followed up that effort with an even more confident and competent performance against the Red Sox as the first road trip of the season continues. Getting in front of hitters early in counts certainly helped Lucas on Tuesday as the Sox never truly threatened to score off of him.

The sleepy Jays offence woke up in the sixth — abetted by a couple of errors and a pair of walks from ace Red Sox starter Garrett Crochet. Spurred on by a solo homer from red-hot George Springer — his second of the season — the Jays put up four runs in the inning to set up a second consecutive win in Beantown.

With Scherzer’s absence due to thumb issues dragging on, for now at least the Jays have a worthy depth replacement and possibly more in the southpaw. And Lucas seemed to be soaking up his latest moment on Monday, revelling in his surroundings in the visitors’ dugout between innings.

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Oh, and in a matchup that many would have handicapped as a mismatch, Lucas outpitched his more accomplished counterpart Crochet, and is 2-0 with a nifty 0.00 ERA.

START ‘EM UP

The Jays rotation has been on fire of late, with back-to-back Lucas gems a prominent part of the surge.

Over the eight games prior to Tuesday’s, the rotation had combined to put up a 2.11 ERA while holding their opponents to three or fewer runs in each of those. Entering Tuesday’s contest, the rotation was the AL leader in innings pitched with 61.

Adding in Tuesday’s Lucas effort, the Jays starting crew have held opponents to a 1.91 ERA in nine games and have hold opponents to two runs or fewer in an MLB-best seven games.

SMALL BALL

The Springer homer aside — a nice 404-foot shot off the wall in left centre — the Jays offence continues to peck away at opponents.

In six of their 12 games, the Jays have put up 10 hits or more (and nine on Tuesday), but the single has been their specialty as they have been limited to just six home runs. The cold weather over their past five games in New York and Boston haven’t helped, but the wait continues for the first home run from the top three bats in the order — Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and badly struggling new guy, Anthony Santander.

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At least Springer is delivering. The veteran outfielder, who struggled so miserably for much of the 2024 season, also had a single on Tuesday and has six hits in the first two games against the Red Sox.

And credit to Bichette for a clutch two-out single in the fifth to drive in a pair of runs after Davis Schneider and Tyler Heineman reached on errors and Myles Straw and Alan Roden drew walks from Crochet.

Bichette added another single in the eighth, giving him a three-hit, three-RBI night.

UP NEXT

With wins on back-to-back nights at frigid Fenway, the Jays are assured of at least a split in the four-game series that continues on Wednesday when Kevin Gausman faces fellow righty Tanner Houck. Gausman has posted a 4.40 ERA in 31 Fenway Park starts.

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