Normally stout defense has off night

TORONTO — The Blue Jays have one of the better defensive teams in the American League, but they picked a really bad time to have an off night at the ballpark.

Toronto committed a pair of errors and made several other miscues in a 13-3 loss to the first-place Red Sox on Friday night. Typically, the Blue Jays are taking hits away from their opponents, but in the series opener, they were giving them out for free.

Left fielder Melvin Upton Jr. had several misplays in left. Devon Travis committed an error, Dioner Navarro was charged with a passed ball and Michael Saunders had a ball bounce over his head in right field. Those were just a few examples of what all in all was a night to forget.

“You don’t like it, no doubt about it,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, whose team has lost four straight. “It’s uncharacteristic of us, so we’ll move on and play the game tomorrow. You really can’t dwell on that. We haven’t necessarily been playing good baseball over the last week, but I like these guys. They got us to this point and I think they’ll continue to do that.”

The biggest miscue came in the top of the third inning when Toronto was still within striking distance. The Blue Jays were trailing, …

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