BOSTON — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ win over Toronto Blue Jays Sunday at Fenway Park:1) With a real efficiency, the Red Sox closed out their long homestand on a high note, beating the Toronto Blue Jays, 6-1. The Sox scored their first run in the third, added two more in the fourth and tacked on three insurance runs in the seventh while five pitchers combined to blank the Jays. The series win was Boston’s sixth in a row and lifted the club’s divisional record to 18-19.2) Ranger Suarez missed three weeks with a groin pull, but watching him Sunday, he hardly seemed out of sync. Through the first three innings, he allowed just one hit. Per usual, Suarez worked quickly, mostly pitched from ahead and fielded his position well (he turned a comebacker into a smooth 1-6-3 double play in the second). In short, it was like he never left. And on the one occasion he got into trouble — runners at the corners, two outs in the fourth — he froze Kazuma Okamoto with a four-seamer to strand two runners.3) Somewhat unnoticed is how much better the Red Sox have played at home of late. With a 5-2 homestand just before the start of their last road trip and an 8-2 mark on the current homestand, the Sox are 13-4 in their last 17 at Fenway, bringing them to within four games of the break-even mark (25-29) at home.4) Small ball continues to be the order of the day under interim manager Chad Tracy. In the third, Carlos Narvaez dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move Andruw Monasterio to second, from where he scored two batters later on a run-scoring single from Ceddanne Rafaela. Then, in the fourth, another sacrifice bunt — this one from Romy Gonzalez — advanced two runners in scoring position and set the stage for Jarren Duran’s two-run single to center. Finally, in the seventh, yet another sacrifice bunt from Carlos Narvaez helped set up a three-run inning that salted the game away. If you’re scoring at home, that’s 17 bunts by the Red Sox so far in July.5) On Saturday, the Red Sox got four scoreless innings of relief from Alec Gamboa. On Sunday, it took a group effort to take over for Suarez, but five different relievers managed to combine for five innings of shutout ball.6) Would it surprise you to learn that the Red Sox are tied for second in baseball with 10 shutouts? Well, they are, behind only Philadelphia, which went into Sunday night’s game with the Yankees with an even dozen. The Sox were an out away from claiming No. 11 in the ninth, but when Willson Contreras tried to beat a base runner to the first base bag instead of flipping the ball to Ryan Watson, it opened the door for a run-scoring opportunity for the Jays.7) Whatever was ailing Justin Slaten a few weeks back has apparently been corrected. There was a stretch when Slaten was blowing up once every handful of appearances, with 10 earned runs allowed in the span of nine innings. Of late, however, he’s been much better. He had a routine 1-2-3 inning in the top of the seventh
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