TORONTO — Jon Lester felt bad about letting down Boston’s batters.
David Cooper hit his first major league homer and drove in the winning run with a sacrifice fly in the 10th inning as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Red Sox 7-6 on Tuesday night.
Adrian Gonzalez homered twice for Boston, the 11th multihomer game of his career, and David Ortiz added a solo shot.
Even with that support, Lester wasn’t able to keep the Blue Jays in check.
“I basically ruined a good night for the offense,” he said.
Jose Bautista hit his 11th home run of the season and rookie J.P. Arencibia also went deep as Toronto improved to 4-1 in extra innings.
Lester, who failed to extend his winning streak to five starts, allowed five runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings. He matched a career high with five walks and struck out five.
“It was uncharacteristic,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. “He wasn’t pumping strikes, he wasn’t throwing it where he wanted to. It looked like he was a little bit frustrated.”
Lester acknowledged losing his cool, and said it hurt him on the mound.
“I have to do a better job of controlling my emotions and not worrying about (calls) and worrying about the next pitch. I didn’t do a very good job of that,” he said.
Rajai Davis hit a one-out single off Matt Albers (0-1) in the 10th and stole second on the first pitch, a pitchout, sliding in just ahead of the tag on a low throw from catcher Jason Varitek.
“If we get the ball in the air on the one to second, we got him,” Francona said.
Davis stole third on the very next pitch, and the Red Sox brought their infield in. Cooper won it with a fly to center.
“Once I saw (Davis) get those two bags I was like, just get something to the outfield and let’s win this game,” Cooper said.
Albers and Varitek shared the blame for allowing the speedy Davis to reach third base.
“I shouldn’t have let him steal third,” Albers said. “I think that one was on me. I’ve got to keep him closer and keep him at second.”
Varitek said the throw to third was a tough one.
“(Davis) had a pretty good jump, and we had a breaking ball called,” he said.
Carlos Villanueva (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win.
The Red Sox, who had their three-game winning streak snapped, were trying to reach the .500 mark for the first time this season.
“Whatever our record is, we always want to win these games,” Francona said. “We want to win every game. That’s how we always feel. I don’t care what our record is.”
Cooper entered in the sixth as a replacement for Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar, who left after he was hit just above the left ankle by a pitch from Lester. Escobar is day-to-day.
Toronto took a 6-5 lead when Cooper connected off Daniel Bard to begin the eighth, but Gonzalez answered by opening the ninth with a solo drive to left off Frank Francisco, who had his first blown save.
“We’re seeing what everybody has talked about,” Francona said of Gonzalez. “When he leverages the ball to left field, he looks like a right-handed hitter.”
The Blue Jays had lost three straight and seven of nine coming in, but jumped on Lester with three in the first, taking advantage as the lefty walked three of his first four batters. Lester’s third base on balls, to Edwin Encarnacion, came with the bases loaded. Aaron Hill and Juan Rivera followed with RBI grounders.
“We started out in a hole and that’s a hard way to play,” Francona said.
Boston got one back on Carl Crawford’s RBI single in the second and cut it to one on a leadoff homer by Ortiz in the fourth, his fifth.
Gonzalez gave the Red Sox a 4-3 lead with a two-run shot to left in the fifth, his fifth, but Bautista tied it with a leadoff shot in the bottom half.
Arencibia restored Toronto’s lead when he opened the sixth with a drive to left, his fifth.
The Red Sox tied it in the eighth against Toronto lefty Marc Rzepczynski. Jed Lowrie doubled and was replaced by pinch-runner Jose Iglesias, who went to third on Crawford’s grounder. Jarrod Saltalamacchia tied it with a two-out single.
Toronto rookie Kyle Drabek allowed four runs and eight hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out five.
NOTES: Jacoby Ellsbury’s first-inning single extended his hitting streak to 19 games, while Crawford’s RBI single in the second extended his hitting streak to 10 games. … Blue Jays 1B Adam Lind (sore back) missed his second straight start. Manager John Farrell said Lind is feeling better, and has not yet had an MRI or X-rays.
Yankees 3, Royals 1
NEW YORK — Freddy Garcia pitched effectively into the seventh inning, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter provided the offense and the New York Yankees’ bullpen made it stand up in a 3-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night.
Brett Gardner tripled and scored twice as the Yankees won for the eighth time in 10 games at home against the Royals. Kansas City has a major league-best 15 wins at Kauffman Stadium but dropped to just 3-9 on the road this season.
Garcia (2-2) gave up six hits and a pair of walks in six-plus innings to win for only the second time in nine decisions against the Royals. He outpitched Kyle Davies (1-5), who allowed three runs in five-plus innings for Kansas City.
Former Yankees outfielder Melky Cabrera provided the Royals with their only run, a solo homer to center field in the fourth inning that briefly tied the game.
Jeter had two more hits after his four-hit, two-homer game Sunday at Texas. He drove in the Yankees’ first run with a crisp single in the third inning.
A-Rod, who had been 5 for 27 with runners in scoring position, added a two-run single in the fifth. The hit followed a 9-for-55 slump for the Yankees’ cleanup hitter.
That little bit of offense was all the New York bullpen needed.
David Robertson pitched out of a jam in the seventh inning and Joba Chamberlain, getting the eighth instead of Rafael Soriano, set down the Royals in order. Mariano Rivera cleaned up the ninth for his 13th save of the season and 25th straight against the Royals.
It was a game of missed opportunities for Kansas City.
The Royals’ first series of mistakes came in the third inning, when Matt Treanor led off with a single. He left first base early trying to steal second and Garcia spun around to easily pick him off. Plate umpire Ed Hickox at first called the pitcher for a balk — it appeared Garcia might have stepped off the rubber backward — but was overruled by his fellow umpires.
It proved costly when Chris Getz singled moments later.
Getz made the second baserunning blunder of the inning when he tried to advance to second on a ball in the dirt. Catcher Russell Martin threw him out by about 3 feet.
Kansas City missed another opportunity in the fifth, putting two runners on with one out. Light-hitting Alcides Escobar struck out and Nick Swisher made a diving stab of a sinking liner off Getz’s bat in right field to end the inning.
The Royals also loaded the bases with one out in the seventh, but Robertson struck out Escobar and Getz to escape the inning, and Kansas City went quietly the rest of the way. Rivera made a nice stab to start a game-ending double play.
NOTES: Yankees RHP Phil Hughes plans to start throwing on flat ground Thursday. He had a cortisone shot about two weeks ago to relieve discomfort in his ailing right shoulder. Hughes has been on the disabled list since April 14. … The Royals are putting LHP Bruce Chen (strained left side) on the DL and will recall RHP Vin Mazzaro from Triple-A Omaha to start Wednesday night.
Brewers 8, Padres 6
MILWAUKEE — Jonathan Lucroy tied career highs with three hits and three RBIs and Shaun Marcum won his fourth straight decision, lifting the Milwaukee Brewers to an 8-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.
Milwaukee built an 8-0 lead off Padres starter Clayton Richard (1-4) as every Brewers starter had at least one hit for the night before having to hold on late.
Lucroy provided two of the biggest blows with a two-run single in the second and an RBI double in the fourth. He also singled in the eighth after fouling a ball into the dirt that ricocheted and hit him in the jaw.
Marcum (4-1) had faced the minimum on one hit through five innings, but the light-hitting Padres came alive in the seventh with five straight singles that chased the right-hander.
It was too big a deficit to overcome.
San Diego got the tying run to the plate in the eighth and the winning run up in the ninth.
John Axford recorded his seventh save after Will Venable’s two-out, run-scoring single cut it to 8-6 and Jason Bartlett followed with a hit to put runners on the corners before Ryan Ludwick grounded out to end it.
The last four days, the Brewers have seen the starting pitching performances they’d hoped for when they traded for Marcum and Zack Greinke in the offseason.
Marcum has been sharp throughout the season after his first start, Greinke won his first game on Monday night with six effective innings and Yovani Gallardo allowed one hit over eight innings in his last start on Saturday.
Milwaukee jumped on Richard in the second with five straight singles, including a run-scoring hit by Corey Hart, his first RBI of the season, and two RBIs by Lucroy before both were thrown out in an awkward 7-5-4-6-4 run down.
The baserunning gaffe hardly slowed Milwaukee.
The Brewers plated three more in the third on Ryan Braun’s run-scoring single and Casey McGehee’s two-run hit. Braun, the NL’s player of the month for April, had been 3 for 33 before his hit gave him his first RBI in May.
Richard was chased in the fourth after an error, an RBI double by Lucroy and Rickie Weeks’ run-scoring single that gave Milwaukee an 8-0 lead.
Lucroy’s three-hit effort improved his batting average to .324, the best among the Brewers regulars.
All the early runs proved to be enough against the Padres, who’ve managed eight or more just twice this season and came in batting a major league-worst .216.
Marcum allowed a leadoff single to start the game to Venable, then retired the next 14 batters until Kyle Phillips’ bloop double started the sixth.
San Diego scored later in the inning on Barlett’s single, and Marcum failed to get an out in the seventh after five straight hits.
Phillips drove in two runs with his single and Alberto Gonzalez followed with a single that made it 8-4, chasing Marcum. Reliever Marco Estrada followed with a double play, but a wild pitch allowed Phillips to score to set up the save situation.
NOTES: Richard, C Nick Hundley and RHP Tim Stauffer spent time earlier Tuesday visiting with patients at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Milwaukee as part of Athletes for Hope. … Brewers RHP Brandon Kintzler (right triceps irritation) will undergo an MRI. Kintzler hasn’t pitched since the second game of a doubleheader in Atlanta on May 4. … Miller Park’s roof was open for the second time this season.