By KEN POWTAK
Associated Press
Associated Press Sports
updated 4:43 p.m. ET May 11, 2013
BOSTON (AP) - Adam Lind hit a tiebreaking homer off Boston closer Junichi Tazawa leading off the ninth inning to lift the Toronto Blue Jays to a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
It was just the fifth win in 16 games for the struggling Blue Jays, who blew a 2-0 lead in the eighth.
Toronto's Mark Buehrle had outdueled Clay Buchholz and had the Blue Jays in position to send him to his first loss of the season before the Red Sox rallied.
Lind belted a 2-2 pitch from Tazawa (2-2) into the center field bleachers, sending Boston to its seventh loss in nine games.
Darren Oliver (2-1) got the win despite giving up the tying run.
Casey Janssen pitched the ninth for his 10th save in 10 chances. He allowed a leadoff double, but got the next three hitters.
It was Buchholz's first meeting with the Blue Jays since Toronto broadcaster Jack Morris accused him of throwing a spitball after he beat them in a game on May 1.
Buehrle had baffled Boston's batters for seven shutout innings, but he walked the leadoff hitter in the eighth and was pulled. Oliver relieved and Jacoby Ellsbury tripled over center fielder Colby Rasmus' head. One out later with the infield in, Dustin Pedroia's hard-hit grounder bounced off shortstop Munenori Kawasaki's glove and into short left, allowing Ellsbury to race home with the tying run. The play was ruled an error.
Buehrle was charged with a run, allowing five hits, striking out five and walking two.
Buchholz gave up two runs, six hits, striking out four and walking three in eight innings.
The start was delayed 51 minutes by rain before Buehrle and Buchholz began their work in a contest that saw the first seven innings played in about two hours.
Buehrle had given up five runs or more in five of his previous seven starts, but he had the Red Sox hitters looking confused as he changed speeds, mixing a below-average speed fastball with cutters, curves and changeups to get a number of off-balanced, poorly timed swings.
The 35-year old left-hander retired 13 straight batters from the third through seventh innings, with Boston hitting just two balls out of the infield and striking out three times.
He needed just seven pitches in fifth and 12 in both the sixth and seventh.
Facing the Blue Jays for the first time since Morris' accusations that lasted into his next start, Buchholz breezed through a perfect first inning on eight pitches, throwing seven strikes and getting a strikeout.
But Toronto scored a run in both the third and fourth before Buchholz got into a groove, too.
The Blue Jays, who were two-hit over seven innings by Buchholz in that 8-0 loss to the Red Sox in Toronto, grabbed a 1-0 lead on Melky Cabrera's RBI single in the third.
In the fourth, Rasums' run-scoring single made it 2-0 after Lind singled leading off and advanced on Brett Lawrie's slow roller to third.
After the Blue Jays scored twice, Buchholz retired 11 of 12, walking one batter.
The Red Sox had two on and one out in the first and second, but Buehrle escaped both jams.
NOTES: The Blue Jays placed OF Rajai Davis on the 15-day DL with a strained left oblique muscle before the game and recalled RHP Chad Jenkins from Double-A New Hampshire. ... Red Sox closer Joel Hanrahan said he needs season-ending surgery on his right forearm. The recovery time is expected to be six to nine months. ... Neither team had BP on the field with showers in the area. ... Heather Abbott, of Newport, R.I., who was injured in the Boston Marathon bombings, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Boston C Jarrod Saltalamacchia. ... Buchholz remains unbeaten at 6-0.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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