BOSTON — Searching for answers for how poorly his season's gone and certainly unable to find them after giving up the most runs he's allowed in his career this afternoon in the Red Sox's 15-7 loss to Toronto, Jon Lester walked slowly off the mound.
At that point, he had failed to get an out in the fifth inning after giving up his fourth home run of the afternoon. He said nothing to Jarrod Saltalamacchia when the catcher made a trip to the mound, nothing to the infielders when they circled around him. He was stoic, wiping his face with his jersey and absorbing the same boos he had been hearing much of the season.
He allowed 11 runs runs, giving up nine hits, walking five and letting four different Blue Jays take him deep.
From the first pitch, Lester was in for a long day. He offered up a fastball at 1:37 to start things off. Brett Lawrie blasted it over the Monster at 1:37:01. It was the start of a five-run first-inning implosion for Lester, who also had a walk catch up to him and canceled out his own strikeout with a wild pitch, allowing Travis Snider to reach and later score.
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He gave up back-to-back home runs in the second inning, a three-run blast to JP Arencibia, then a follow-up by Rajai Davis.
Sox manager Bobby Valentine left Lester in for four-plus innings, but in the fifth Lester got a clear view of what the bottom looks like.
He started the inning off by walking Davis, then Snider took him for a ride, finally forcing Valentine to take the ball from him.
Adrian Gonzalez hit a three-run homer and Jacoby Ellsbury a solo shot for the Red Sox, who are off to Texas to take on the first-place Rangers on Monday. The Red Sox will then travel to New York for a weekend series in the Bronx.