Bateman's Fifth-Inning Single Flips the Script, Toronto Takes 5-3

Toronto erased a two-run deficit in the fifth inning and never looked back, beating Boston 5-3 on August 11. The game's decisive moment came when Brett Bateman singled to center to score Myles Straw, swinging Toronto's win probability from 39% to 56% — a 17-point lurch that effectively ended Boston's night.

Boston looked like the team in control through four and a half innings. Ceddanne Rafaela got things going in the third with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Andruw Monasterio for a 1-0 lead. Toronto answered immediately — Bateman doubled to left, scoring Lukes and sending McAdoo to third to tie it at one. Then Boston pulled ahead again: Wilyer Abreu went deep to right center (370 feet) in the fourth, and Rafaela followed with a 411-foot shot to center in the fifth to push the lead to 3-1. At that point, Boston had all the momentum and Toronto's offense looked stuck.

Then the fifth inning unraveled fast. A McAdoo sacrifice fly to right scored Giménez to make it 3-2, and before Boston could exhale, Bateman singled to center to score Straw and knot it at three. That single — the game's biggest swing — pushed Toronto's win probability from 39% to 56%, a 17-point shift that reframed everything. What looked like a Boston afternoon became a Toronto comeback in the span of two at-bats. The sixth inning finished the job: a fielder's choice grounder to second by Clement scored Springer, giving Toronto a 4-3 lead it would not relinquish.

On the mound, the story of the night was two starters who both had their issues. Dylan Cease went five innings for Toronto, allowing three earned runs on five hits and four walks, but punched out seven — the kind of line that looks messy until you realize his bullpen held the fort. Patrick Sandoval gave Boston six innings, surrendering eight hits and two earned runs, which on paper isn't a disaster, but the fifth-inning collapse happened on his watch. Myles Straw went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, and Alejandro Kirk added a quiet 2-for-3 to keep Toronto's lineup churning. The insurance run came in the eighth when Straw doubled to left, scoring Smith and pushing Giménez to third to make it 5-3 — Boston never threatened after that. Rafaela's two-homer, two-RBI effort was genuinely impressive and appears to be the only reason this game was competitive as long as it was.