BOSTON – With a chance at settling their postseason fate themselves, the Red Sox literally watched a golden opportunity pass them by Tuesday night.

The first player to stumble was Clay Buchholz. The young starting pitcher has thrown as well as anyone on the staff for a month but he was pounded Tuesday by the Blue Jays, giving up five home runs and seven runs in five ugly innings.

Then, after a stirring comeback that cut a six-run deficit to one, the always-reliable Kevin Youkilis watched a third strike sail by in the bottom of the ninth inning. That stranded the tying and winning runs on base and gave the Blue Jays an 8-7 win.

As the crowd of 37,618 trudged out of Fenway Park, their team's playoff chances remained in limbo as the Rangers and Angels began their game out in Los Angeles. An Angels' win would punch Boston's playoff ticket for the sixth time in seven seasons.

"We tried but it didn't work out," said Boston's David Ortiz. "They came out hot and have been hitting the heck out of the ball the last couple days. Not too much you can do about it."

Buchholz dug his teammates a monstrous hole in the opening five innings. He said he'd never given up five home runs in a game in his life and that galling development let the Jays run out to an 8-2 lead after seven innings. But that's when the Red Sox began their charge. The Jays had just turned their fourth double play in the bottom of the eighth inning. That left the Sox with a runner on third base and Youkilis at the plate. He doubled in Ellsbury and reliever Shawn Camp quickly caved. The Sox rallied for three hits, a walk and a huge three-run homer by J.D. Drew to cut the lead to 8-7.

That set up the ninth inning. After Jonathan Papelbon retired the Jays in order, the Jays' Jason Frasor began by getting pinch-hitter Josh Reddick to foul out. Jacoby Ellsbury kept hope alive by poking a single to left. Dustin Pedroiathen drove a pitch nearly 400 feet before Jose Bautista chased it down in front of the Red Sox bullpen. Ellsbury stole second base while Frasor was dealing with the dangerous Victor Martinez, who ultimately walked.

That brought up Youkilis. He and Frasor battled deep into a full count but the pitcher froze Youkilis with a sharp fastball down the middle for a called third strike.

"I had that feeling," manager Terry Francona said of pulling off a big comeback. "I actually thought (Pedroia's) ball was going to find some grass out there. When you get Youk up with speed on the bases. We had a great hitter up but the fastball froze him."

While the Red Sox' failure to put a finish to the big comeback was the most painful pill to swallow, the awful outing from Buchholz is much more concerting. With nothing to play for this week, the Blue Jays have enjoyed swinging for the fences. They ripped six homers Tuesday and three in a 11-5 win on Monday. The six homers are the most by a Red Sox opponent since the Tigers hit seven in 2004.

The biggest bat Tuesday belonged to Adam Lind. He hit three homers, two off Buchholz and one off reliever Takashi Saito. Lind became the first opponent to hit three homers against the Red Sox at Fenway since Frank Thomas did so in 1996 as a member of the White Sox. Another Jays' star was ex-Red Sox Kevin Millar. He hit the ball hard three times, finishing 3-for-4 with a single, double and home run.

Buchholz, who is slated to start the regular season's final game on Sunday, came into the game on a high. He was unbeaten in his last eight starts, going 6-0 with a 2.44 earned run average. He's pegged as the Sox' likely Game Three starter in any playoff series but this performance certainly must raise some doubts about his readiness for the post-season.

"You have your good days and bad days," Buchholz said. "Whatever role they throw me in, third starter, fourth starter, I'll be ready."

Buchholz said he felt as though the Jays sat on his change-up most of the night. He faild to throw the pitch where he wanted to, especially with two strikes, and that ultimately cost him.

"I feel like I did a pretty good job getting the majority of guys into two-strike counts and the execution of the two-strike pitches wasn;t near as sharp as they needed to be to get these guys out," said Buchholz. "You make mistakes like that to a team that can hit, you see what happens."

It didn't take the Jays long to start pounding Buchholz. Jose Bautista laced the game's first pitch deep into the left field seats for a home run. Aaron Hill followed Bautista with a loud single to right and then Lind lined Buchholz's sixth pitch of the night into the center field bleachers for a homer and a 3-0 Jays' lead. A walk and two singles pushed across a fourth run before Buchholz finally exited the first inning.

The Red Sox scored once in the bottom of the first when a Dustin Pedroia single was followed by a single and the 103rd RBI of Victor Martinez's season.

The Jays went deep again in the second when Hill whacked a 3-2 changeup over the Monster to push the lead to 5-1. The Sox scored their second run in the bottom of the inning when Jason Bay walked, moved to third on a single and a ground out and came home on a wild pitch.

But Buchholz never settled down. Millar cranked a deep homer (his 7th of the year) to left with two outs in the third inning and Lind led off the fifth inning with his second homer of the game to push Toronto's lead to 7-2. Buchholz left the game at the end of the fifth after 79 pitches. Lind homered for the third time in the seventh inning off Saito to help the Jays to a 8-2 lead.

kmcnamar@projo.com