Dustin Pedroia strikes out during the first inning of last night’s series finale against the Blue Jays at Fenway.

The Providence Journal / Mary Murphy

BOSTON — Another game, more poor baserunning by the faltering Blue Jays.

With usually heady David Eckstein on second and Scott Rolen on first and the Jays ahead, 1-0, with none out in the fifth, Matt Stairs lofted a ball toward the wall.

Eckstein wasn’t sure whether Coco Crisp would track it down, so he didn’t break hard for third. Instead, he hung close to second, looking as if he might tag up if the catch were made.

Crisp, though, turned to look at the wall, making it obvious he wasn’t going to catch it and would have to play it off the Monster. At that point, Eckstein took off.

Crisp caught a break when the ball hit the lip of the scoreboard and popped in the air right to him. While Eckstein was racing toward third, Rolen had his head down and rounded second base, expecting to steam into third.

Eckstein’s belated jump, though, put him in jeopardy of scoring. As he rounded third, the coach there, Marty Pevey, was pointing to the third-base bag, telling Rolen to stand up as he got to the bag, figuring Eckstein was past him and on his way home.

Eckstein, however, put the brakes on as he zipped a few feet past the bag and down the line.

The upshot was that Eckstein and Rolen both were at third base. Eckstein eventually was put out in a rundown as Stairs took second.

So instead of a run in, a 2-0 lead and runners at first and third with none out and number-five hitter Vernon Wells coming up, Toronto had runners at second and third and one out and still a 1-0 lead. Wells hit a sacrifice fly to center, but the messed-up baserunning cost the Blue Jays at least a run.

A night earlier, pinch runners Marco Scutaro (failure to tag up) and John McDonald (picked off) hurt the Jays with baserunning mistakes.

Drought in leadoff spot

It could have happened even with Jacoby Ellsbury at the top of the order.

But with Ellsbury on the bench for the three-game series against the Blue Jays because of a sore groin, the Sox had to find a replacement for him in the leadoff spot in the batting order.

Ellsbury has an on-base percentage of .396. The on-base percentage of the Sox’ leadoff hitters against Toronto was .000 — 0-for-12.

Coco Crisp went 0-for-4 in the opener of the series. Dustin Pedroia led off the last two games and went 0-for-4 in each game.

The running game

The Blue Jays, having trouble getting clutch hits in going 1-7 in the first eight games of their road trip, turned their attention to the stolen-base game against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Eckstein walked with one out in the first inning. On the 0-and-1 pitch to Rolen, Eckstein took a few steps toward second but stopped, realizing he hadn’t gotten a great jump. Unfortunately for Eckstein and the Jays, Rolen hit that pitch on the ground up the middle. Dustin Pedroia grabbed the ball, stepped on the bag and fired to first for the double play.

If Eckstein had continued on his stolen-base attempt, Pedroia might not have been able to turn two.

In the third, the Jays’ Alex Rios swiped second on a one-out bloop single to right-center. Most of the time, the opposition gets to steal on a knuckleball, in the 64-68 mph range, which puts the catcher at a disadvantage, both for the fluttering nature of the pitch and the lack of speed.

Rios actually went on a 2-and-0 fastball (73) and made it safely when catcher Kevin Cash couldn’t get a good grip on the ball. The stolen base paid off when Rolen threaded a two-out single through the right side.

Toronto’s plan to run on Wakefield continued in the fourth. Shannon Stewart swiped second with two outs and raced to third when Cash’s throw sailed into center. Stewart was stranded.

Kevin or Dougie?

If you didn’t know better, you might have thought it was Doug Mirabelli back behind the plate last night catching Wakefield.

When Matt Stairs hit a soft foul popup with two outs in the third, Cash took off his mask, tracked down the ball to the left of home plate and made the catch without throwing aside his mask. That was one of Mirabelli’s trademarks, hanging onto the mask as he one-handed the foul popups.

The more prescribed method is to find the ball and throw the mask as far away as necessary to make sure it isn’t stepped on as the catch is made.

Forcing the issue

When a team is in a slump, sometimes a manager tries to reach too deep into the bag of tricks to find something that works.

Toronto manager John Gibbons fell into that category in the ninth.

Already leading, 3-0, the Jays had runners at first and second with none out. Lyle Overbay, hardly a speedster, was at second. Gibbons called for a hit-and-run with Eckstein at the plate.

Normally, Eckstein is one of the best at getting the bat on the ball for a hit-and-run or a squeeze. But he was unable to get a piece of a tough sinker from Javier Lopez, missing the ball. Catcher Kevin Cash easily threw out Overbay at third base.

Gibbons called for the play because he had a lot of confidence in Eckstein’s ability to get the bat on the ball, but with runners at first and second and none out while boasting a 3-0 lead? Against a pitcher who had faced two batters and given up two hits? It seemed as if Gibbons was trying to force something when he really didn’t need to.

skrasner@projo.com