Red Sox 5, Blue Jays 13: Disaster for Eduardo Rodriguez

Eduardo Rodriguez' run of strong starts has come to an end with his fourth, and it ended badly, in a 13-5 defeat to the Toronto Blue Jays.

We all knew that Rodriguez was not immune to the old saying about all good things, but this...this was a bit much. While he wasn't completely cruising through his first three innings, the young lefty was getting outs and keeping runs off the board. There was little sign of what was to come.

Then came the fourth, and it started with a relatively soft hit off the bat of Josh Donaldson. Before his call-up, there was some concern that Rodriguez could struggle with runners on base, and while that hadn't proven the case in his first three starts, when Donaldson reached, everything fell apart. Three of the next four batters would pick up base hits to put two runs on the board, with a walk and a sacrifice fly scoring a third. Rodriguez came within an out of avoiding complete disaster, but Ryan Goins met Rodriguez' high-inside fastball challenge with a long ball to right, scoring three more and leaving Rodriguez' start in ruins.

You might think John Farrell would have chosen to protect his young lefty after the rough inning, but instead he tried to get him at least a positive finish, and to save his bullpen some grief. Instead, he more or less ended up feeding him to the dogs. A two out rally saw the Jays pick up a walk, single, and double off Rodriguez, with Steven Wright coming in only to serve up a homer to Danny Valencia of all people, leaving the Jays ahead a full 10-0 and Rodriguez' day a complete disaster.

The Red Sox scored some runs in the bottom of the inning. Five of them, in fact, with David Ortiz capping it off with a three-run shot. But such is the state of the Red Sox right now that even if they'd scored eight or nine it would be hard to believe they had any shot to win this one. And still trailing by five even after all that? Please.

The Sox would not, in fact, score again, while the Jays would put up three more against a combination of Steven Wright and Tommy Layne, bringing our unfortunate score to 13-5, and locking in the Red Sox' losing streak at six games.

This is not the worst loss of the season. The "new low" of the 8-1 lead turning into a 13-10 loss still stands tall. But one of our few bright spots, and certainly our brightest, was left awfully dim today. These are the days it does not pay to be a fan.