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With a $163-million (U.S.) payroll you got the sense that the Red Sox would turn it around – and they have – pulling into Toronto for a two-game series against the Blue Jays just one game below the .500 mark.
Boston (17-19) will have to wait a bit to get over that hump as the Blue Jays (16-20) finally broke into the win column after three consecutive losses, recording a 7-6 victory in 10 innings.
It was a drawn-out, topsy-turvy affair in which the Blue Jays took a 6-5 lead in the eighth inning when David Cooper, playing just his ninth game since getting called up from the minors, drilled his first major-league home run off Boston reliever Daniel Bard.
With Frank Francisco in to protect the lead in the ninth, Boston slugger Adrian Gonzalez hit his second home run of the game to tie it up.
Rajai Davis engineered the winning run, singling with one out in the 10th and then stealing second base – on a pitch out no less.
Not content with that, Davis then stole third, which set the table for Cooper and he came through once again, launching a sacrifice fly to centre field to score the winning run.
Boston opened the year with six consecutive losses, the club’s longest season-opening drought since 1945.
The natives were restless, especially with Crawford, one of their big off-season free-agent acquisitions, who had been more bust than boom.
Crawford has picked up the pace in the 15 games prior to Tuesday’s contest, batting .305, including a couple of walk off hits, raising his average from .135 to .211. He singled home Boston’s first run in the second inning on Tuesday to extend his hit streak to 10 games.
Sixers Dump Allen Iverson for the Season. Allen Iverson’s short return to the Philadelphia 76ers has ended. The point guard, who once led the team to the NBA finals, will not come back to the organization for the rest of the season, the Sixers announced Tuesday. The decision follows Iverson’s month-long absence from the team in order to deal with the undisclosed illness of his 4-year-old daughter, Messiah. Iverson, who returned to the 76ers as a free-agent in December, has not played since Feb. 20. “After discussing the situation with Allen, we have come to the conclusion that he will not return to the Sixers for the remainder of the season, as he no longer wishes to be a distraction to the organization and teammates that he loves very deeply,” team president Ed Stefanski said. “It has been very difficult for Allen and the team to maintain any consistency as he tries to balance his career with his personal life.” Iverson has returned to Atlanta to be with his family. Coach Eddie Jordan said at practice it was best for Iverson to move on and put his focus on his daughter. “I think it was the right thing to do at the right time,” Jordan said. “His body of work has proven to be a terrific body of work in the history of the NBA.”