Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Jon Lester, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon combined for a two-hit shutout, as the Boston Red Sox swept a three-game set with a 2-0 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.
Red Sox Sweep Jays, Get Back To .500
Lester (1-2) earned his first win of the season with a brilliant effort, allowing just one hit with 11 strikeouts in seven innings. Papelbon tossed the ninth for his seventh save.
Dustin Pedroia and Darnell McDonald drove in a run for Boston, which has won seven of its last nine games.
Vernon Wells and Alex Gonzalez each doubled for the Blue Jays, who dropped their fifth straight.
Brett Cecil (1-1) allowed just a run on five hits in six frames, but couldn't garner any offensive support with Lester on the mound.
The Reds Sox scored the first run of the night in the sixth. Pedroia's sacrifice fly plated McDonald, who reached on a lead-off double.
Adrian Beltre hit a ground-rule double off Casey Janssen with one out in the seventh and scored on McDonald's two-out base hit to left.
Bard and Papelbon combined to allow one hit in the final two frames.
Toronto's only real scoring chance came in the eighth, when Gonzalez doubled to start the inning and stole third with two outs. But pinch-hitter Travis Snider struck out looking.
Boston has now won six consecutive times at the Rogers Centre and is 8-2 in its last 10 games played in Toronto...Vernon Wells is currently sitting on 199 career home runs which ranks him fourth on the all-time Blue Jays HR list, three shy of George Bell who ranks third with 202. Wells is looking to become just the fourth player in club history to reach the 200-HR plateau as a Blue Jay...Toronto finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position...Beltre ended 2-for-4.
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