Red Sox top Jays in opener

Toronto, ON – Clay Buchholz went a season-high eight innings, David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez both drove in a pair and the Red Sox defeated the Blue Jays, 7-2, in the opener of a three-game series.

Buchholz (5-2) also reached a season-high in strikeouts, with seven, and gave up just two runs -- on homers to Yunel Escobar and David Cooper. He yielded six hits and walked a pair.

"It sort of came together tonight," said Buchholz. "I was able to get some weak contact in some big situations."

Ortiz had a solo homer, Gonzalez went 3-for-5 and Daniel Nava hit three doubles for Boston, which has won 15 of its last 21 games.

Henderson Alvarez (3-5) took the loss for Toronto, which was coming off a three-game sweep of the Orioles. He allowed four runs on eight hits over 6 1/3 innings.

Ortiz's 13th homer of the season -- a towering leadoff blast which barely cleared the wall in left-center field -- put the Red Sox on top in the second.

It was 2-0 an inning later when Nava ripped a two-out double and crossed the plate on Gonzalez's single to left.

The Blue Jays' first hit came in the bottom half, when Escobar belted a two- out homer to left-center. They placed runners at first and second in the fifth inning but a Kelly Johnson strikeout and a 6-4-3 double play groundout by Escobar promptly ended the threat.

The Red Sox loaded the bases in the sixth and only came away with one run -- on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's fielder's choice groundout -- but scored four in the seventh to put the game away.

Ryan Sweeney led off with a ground-rule double, moved to third on a groundout and scored on Scott Podsednik's two-out single off of Luis Perez. Nava plated Podsednik with a double before Gonzalez and Ortiz laced consecutive RBI singles to make it 7-1.

Cooper hit his first homer of the season in the home half to cap the scoring.

"(Buchholz) was throwing the changeup really well tonight," said Cooper. "It was really tough to pick up. He had a good heater too. It was running, it had good life on it. He threw well."

Game Notes

Buchholz has won each of his last six road starts against the Blue Jays since July 7, 2009. It is the longest-ever win streak in consecutive starts by a visitor at Toronto...Ortiz has hit 30 homers in 95 career games at Rogers Centre. It stands as his most home runs in any park other that Fenway.