Hechavarria homers as Blue Jays beat Red Sox 5-0

TORONTO (AP) — Adeiny Hechavarria hit a two-run home run, Omar Vizquel had two hits and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox 5-0 on Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the seventh, when Yan Gomes grounded a two-out single up the middle against Jon Lester (9-12), just the second hit for the Blue Jays.

Rajai Davis came on as a pinch runner and stole second, then scored on Vizquel’s single to center. The base hit was Vizquel’s 2,782nd, matching him with Jesse Burkett for 42nd on the all-time list and leaving him just one behind Hall of Fame slugger Babe Ruth.

Hechavarria hit Lester’s next pitch into the second deck in left, just his second career home run.

Brandon Lyon (3-0) pitched 2-3 of an inning for the win. Darren Oliver worked the eighth and Casey Janssen finished.

Toronto pulled away with two more in the eighth off Daniel Bard. Brett Lawrie led off with a double and scored on Colby Rasmus’ single to left, with Rasmus taking second on Ryan Kalish’s error. Rasmus scored two batters later on Moises Sierra’s RBI single off Scott Atchison.

Lester allowed three runs and four hits in seven innings as the Red Sox failed to get their first three-game winning streak since posting four consecutive victories from July 28 to 31.

Lester set down the first six batters in order before Vizquel doubled to begin the third, but the Blue Jays didn’t get another base runner until Sierra’s leadoff walk in the fifth. Sierra was safe at second when Lester threw high to second on Gomes’ sacrifice bunt, then had to scamper back to the bag after nearly getting caught in a rundown.

Toronto failed to capitalize when Lester struck out Vizquel and Hechavarria, then got Anthony Gose to ground into a fielder’s choice.

Boston put a runner in scoring position three times in the first four innings against Blue Jays right-hander Brandon Morrow but failed to score. The Red Sox stranded men at first and second in the first, left a runner at second in the second and stranded runners at first and second again in the fourth.

Ciriaco had a two-out single off Lyon in the seventh and stole second while Jose Iglesias was batting. When the count got to 2-2 on Iglesias, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine brought Daniel Nava on as a pinch hitter. Nava grounded back to the mound on the first pitch.

The Red Sox put runners at first and second with one out in the eighth but Ross grounded into a double play.

Morrow gave up four hits in six scoreless innings. He walked one and struck out three.

NOTES: Toronto DH Edwin Encarnacion (sore right big toe) was scratched from the lineup, along with SS Yunel Escobar (illness) and C Jeff Mathis (flulike symptoms). … Valentine insisted he wasn’t trying to be critical when he said Friday that his struggling Red Sox had “the weakest roster we’ve ever had in September in the history of baseball.” On Sunday, Valentine called his earlier comments “a statement of fact because of the injuries and our Triple-A team in the playoffs.”