Toronto shortstop David Eckstein avoids Boston baserunner Sean Casey and turns a double play for the Blue Jays in the third inning during the Red Sox’ loss yesterday afternoon at the Rogers Centre.

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AP / J.P. Moczulski

TORONTO — No one is expecting Clay Buchholz to sail through his rookie season despite the lofty expectations he might have created last year by tossing a no-hitter in his second appearance in the big leagues.

And the “No-Hit Kid” didn’t exactly breeze his way through the Toronto Blue Jays’ minefield of a lineup yesterday at Rogers Centre.

But despite being tagged with the loss in his season debut in the Jays’ 10-2 victory, Buchholz showed bits of promise of good things to come in allowing four runs, three of them earned, in five innings. He fanned seven and while his command came and went at times, he showed off an outstanding changeup and a knee-buckling curveball.

“He was pretty good,” said catcher Jason Varitek. “We made some adjustments. He’s still going to go through some bumps. He’s got tremendous stuff. He’ll just continue to get better.”

The Red Sox, meanwhile, will need to get better if they want to successfully defend the World Series championship they racked up last fall.

The work out of the bullpen hasn’t been stellar the last two games in back-to-back losses to the Blue Jays, contenders for the American League East crown this year. The offense, which has produced only five runs in the setbacks, has to become more productive.

And yesterday there was a defensive leak in the form of an error by veteran first baseman Sean Casey that helped turn a 2-1 lead into a 4-2 disadvantage in a rocky fourth inning for Buchholz and Boston.

“We’re not clicking on all cylinders just yet,” said Varitek after the Sox’ bullpen was torched for six runs in the sixth, putting the game out of reach. “They’ve thrown the ball better and they’ve hit the ball better than us.”

Of course, only six games have been played this year, and Boston is 3-3 with a tough travel schedule, notably games being played in three different countries — Japan, the United States and now here in Canada. So there’s certainly no need to panic now.

There’s plenty of time to kick it in gear.

Time also is on the side of Buchholz, only 23 years old and the organization’s third pick (42nd overall) in the 2005 draft. Improvement is going to come bit by bit.

Yesterday, that improvement was demonstrated in Buchholz’s response to jams he got into. Unlike his previous outing, in an exhibition game against the Dodgers in which he was raked for five runs (four earned), Buchholz didn’t let innings get out of hand yesterday.

For instance, in the second inning, after surrendering a run on two hits and a walk with none out, Buchholz kept the Jays from scoring any more runs. He racked up a pair of strikeouts and notched the final out on an infield popup.

In the fourth, a single to left by Lyle Overbay, a bunt single by Aaron Hill and a walk filled the bases with one out. Gregg Zaun hit a possible double-play grounder but Casey couldn’t handle the hot grounder. The ball clanked off his glove for two runs and by the end of the inning, the Jays had a two-run lead.

Buchholz, though, rebounded with a spotless fifth. His only 1-2-3 inning, finishing his stint with a strikeout of Overbay on a nasty changeup.

“I thought my damage control was a little better,” said Buchholz, a 6-foot-3, 190-pounder. “I felt comfortable. They had a couple of big hits on tough pitches. I got the ground ball when I needed it, but it got through.

“But I finally got into the fifth inning of a game, so it felt good to be able to do that,” said Buchholz, who was 1-3 with a 10.13 in four spring-training games.

Manager Terry Francona and Varitek were impressed with parts of his outing.

“He had an excellent changeup,” said Francona. “He lost his command a little bit (in the fourth), but then he got it back. I was glad to see him have a clean inning in the fifth.”

“He had a strong fifth after that crazy inning but he was able to keep the damage to a minimum this time,” added Varitek. “It was still only his first outing (of the year).”

Something to build on for Buchholz and the Sox. Blue Jays

10

Red Sox

2

Next Game

Today

at Toronto,

1 p.m.

skrasner@projo.com