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Ortiz, Bradley homer as Red Sox down Blue Jays

Toronto, ON (SportsNetwork.com) - David Ortiz and Jackie Bradley Jr. belted solo home runs and the Boston Red Sox held on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 4-3 on Tuesday night.

Ortiz and Bradley homered off red-hot Toronto starter Marco Estrada, who was coming off back-to-back near no-hitters but was knocked around in this one, failing to make it out of the third inning.

Mookie Betts had two hits and a runs scored for the Red Sox, who have won the first two games of the four-game series and three in a row overall.

Boston rookie Eduardo Rodriguez (4-2) retired the last six batters he faced in six strong innings to earn the win.

The left-hander, who allowed nine runs in a 13-5 loss to Toronto on June 14, gave up one run on four hits and two walks on Tuesday while striking out four in his seventh major league start.

"He made some quality pitches with men on base," said Red Sox manager John Farrell. "He had very good stuff."

Toronto's Jose Reyes hit a two-run homer off reliever Tommy Layne but the Blue Jays lost for the third time in their last four games.

Layne replaced Rodriguez to start the bottom of the seventh inning and gave up a one-out single to Kevin Pillar before Reyes' two-out blast to left got the Blue Jays within 4-3 after they trailed 4-0.

Alexi Ogando came in to retire All-Star votes leader Josh Donaldson on a ground ball to preserve the one-run Boston lead.

Ogando threw 1 1/3 innings and Koji Uehara pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 18th save of the season.

Estrada (5-4) carried a perfect game into the eighth inning at Tampa Bay last Wednesday after coming within six outs of throwing a no-hitter at home against Baltimore in his previous start on June 19.

But he gave up four runs -- two earned -- on three hits and four walks in just 2 1/2 innings against Boston.

The right-hander threw 38 pitches in the first inning, which began with second baseman Devon Travis making an error. Estrada yielded two runs in the inning despite not allowing hit. The Red Sox drew four walks, including back-to-back passes to Mike Napoli and Alejandro De Aza with the bases loaded.

Bradley's leadoff blast to right in the second inning was his first homer of the season. Ortiz lined Estrada's second pitch into the second deck above right leading off the third for his 13th homer of the season and a 4-0 lead.

The Blue Jays scored in the fourth after Edwin Encarnacion hit a ground-rule double and came home on Chris Colabello's single.

"It was just one of those games...where we just weren't able to get anything going," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.

Game Notes

Boston improved to 5-6 against Toronto this season ... Todd Redmond saw the most work out of the bullpen for Toronto, giving up just two hits in 3 1/3 scoreless innings after replacing Estrada. Bo Schultz followed with 2 1/3 scoreless innings and Steve Delabar threw one frame.

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