Oh, Felix Doubront, why have you forsaken us?

The phenom from the back end of the Red Sox rotation gave up a career-high seven runs against the Toronto Blue Jays last night.  Doubront went six innings in the 9-6 loss, which was punctuated by a two-hour rain delay and a four-run first inning for Toronto.  With the loss, the Red Sox fell back into a tie with Toronto for fourth place – a.k.a., last place – in the AL East.

Fenway Park (Amanda Laws)

The runs piled up quickly for Doubront in the first inning – Brett Lawrie singled and Cody Rasmus hit a home run to right field to kick things off.  The Will Middlebrooks Era began with a fielding error from its namesake that let another Toronto runner on (a “Yyyyooouuuukkkk” cheer came up from the crowd – welcome to the spotlight, Will!) before a double, a single, and a muffed double play scored two more Toronto runs.

The Red Sox got two of those runs back in the bottom of the first: Dustin Pedroia got on and got himself to third base, and David Ortiz cleared the right-field fence to bring the deficit to two.  Toronto tacked on another run in the top of the second, before the Sox scored two more to stay within one in the bottom of the third inning (Middlebrooks flew out to right with runners on first and third, drawing more “Youk” cheers – jeez, how quickly the tide turns in Boston).

Boston tied the game up at five in the fourth inning, but that didn’t last – Toronto’s J.P. Arencibia, the ninth hitter in the order, hit a huge two-out two-run home run over the Monster and into the Sports Authority sign to give the Blue Jays a 7-5 lead.  Toronto extended that lead to 9-5, before the skies opened up and the rain, thunder and lightning took over for a good hour and a half (yours truly had to walk the dog during this time, which was a blast for both of us).

After the rain delay ended close to midnight, Ortiz hit a solo home run to bring the score to 9-6.  But that’s as close as the Sox would get to a late-night/early morning comeback.

So, that was kind of a disappointing game, with a disappointing box score, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Doubront had a night he’d probably like to forget, and Middlebrooks didn’t exactly start his big league starter career with the best output.  The Sox will try again tonight, when Daisuke Matsuzaka (0-2, 6.06 ERA) takes on Aaron Laffey (0-0, 3.00 ERA), who is making his first start of the season.