Boston’s Kevin Youkilis tosses his bat in disgust after striking out in the fifth inning yesterday against Toronto.

AP / FRANK GUNN

TORONTO — This wasn’t supposed to happen to the Red Sox. Not with Jon Lester on the mound.

The left-hander has been sharp all season, but he struggled in a big way yesterday as the Toronto Blue Jays pounded him early and often en route to an 11-0 victory at the Rogers Centre.

Lester lasted only 2 1/3 innings — his shortest outing of his career — and allowed seven runs on eight hits to drop his record to 12-5.

What’s even more alarming for Boston is the fact that its starting pitching has hit a massive breakdown, the result of injuries to Josh Beckett and Tim Wakefield and the recent implosion, and demotion, of Clay Buchholz. Through it all, it has been Daisuke Matsuzaka and Lester who have provided stability in the ranks.

Not yesterday.

“I [stunk],” Lester said. “There’s nothing else really to say. I didn’t get strike one, and when I did, I couldn’t put them away. It was one of those days. You have them every now and again; you just have to forget about it, wash it down the drain and in five days go out and improve on it.”

Red Sox manager Terry Francona said the left-hander’s pitches were flat and up in the zone during his brief outing.

“He made some mistakes,” Francona said. “On top of that, too, every ball found a hole. He threw a lot of pitches [78, 47 for strikes] in a short period of time.”

Lester agrees.

“Nothing was really working,” he said. “I was rushing through my delivery and didn’t have a good tempo. When I got the ground balls I needed, they weren’t at people. It just wasn’t my day. Basically, everything you don’t want to do, I did. You chalk it up as one of those outings.”

In his last start in Baltimore the southpaw was outstanding. In fact, he’s been tremendous for the majority of the season, especially in his previous 14 starts during which he posted a 9-1 record with a 2.89 ERA. Entering his 27th start of the season yesterday, he had lasted at least seven innings in each of his last eight consecutive starts.

Yesterday he just stumbled.

“I didn’t make the adjustments I needed to make during the game,” Lester said. “It was the Blue Jays day. It was a drag, but I’ll move on.”

The Blue Jays, who pounded the Yankees here on Thursday, 13-3, crushed Boston’s pitching yesterday. Vernon Wells led the way, going 4-for-5, including two home runs. It was his first multi-homer game of the season and 17th of his career.

Believe it or not, Wells’ first homer of the game in the first inning was the one pitch Lester said he threw well.

“Actually, that was the best pitch I threw all day,” he said. “It was the only ball that was down and I hit my target. He just did a good job of hitting it and there’s nothing I can really do about it.”

Boston has allowed an alarming number of runs of late. In four games since Aug. 12, the Sox have surrendered a total of 54 runs.

“It didn’t help us win today and it doesn’t get in the way of us winning tomorrow,” said Francona. “If Daisuke comes out and pitches like he’s supposed to [today], it doesn’t matter what happened last week.”

Not only did Toronto put on an offensive barrage, its defense was spectacular, too. When Boston did hit the ball well, the Blue Jays were able to snare it with highlight-reel catches. Wells made a few defensive gems, including a pair of Willie Mays-style catches in center field against the Sox’ Jason Bay. Former Providence College standout John McDonald also flashed the leather at shortstop for the Jays.

As well as Toronto played, it was the complete opposite for the Red Sox.

In one of the ugliest outputs of the season, Boston was kept at bay by Toronto starter Jesse Litsch, who worked six scoreless innings and allowed only three hits.

Francona loves to preach the one-day-at-a-time method, so the club quickly filed yesterday’s loss and will look for Matsuzaka to win the rubber match of this three-game series.

The Japanese import was the last player to leave the clubhouse last evening as he quietly began to prepare for his start today.

The right-hander is 15-2 with a 2.77 ERA this season and he desperately needs to continue his winning ways.

“We’ll be fine,” said Red Sox slugger David Ortiz. “We go through this every year. At the end of the day we’ll have another [World Series] ring with us.” Blue Jays

11

Red Sox

0

Next Game

Today

at Toronto,

1:07 p.m.

jmcdonal@projo.com