Boston’s Coco Crisp, left, rushes to the aid of right fielder Jacoby Ellsbury after Ellsbury collided with the wall while chasing down a long fly ball by Toronto’s Adam Lind.

AP / Frank Gunn

TORONTO –– The cut above Jacoby Ellsbury’s eye and the soon-to-be bruises on his right shoulder perfectly tell the story of yesterday’s game at the Rogers Centre.

The Sox’ right fielder slammed shoulder- and head-first into the outfield wall in front of the visitors’ bullpen as he snared a line drive by the Blue Jays’ Adam Lind in the bottom of the fourth inning, and it was that kind of effort that reverberated through the lineup as Boston finished with a dramatic 6-5 victory over Toronto in 11 innings.

Rookie Jed Lowrie’s solo home run in the top of the 11th gave the Red Sox the victory, and they conclude their second leg of this three-city road trip with a 4-2 mark. Three games remain against the Yankees in New York.

Lowrie and Ellsbury weren’t the only heroes. This game featured lead changes, home runs, timely hitting, solid pitching and spectacular defense in an all-out, grit-your-teeth effort from both clubs.

And this is the type of victory this group of banged-up, struggling Red Sox players needed to jump-start them into the stretch run.

“That was one of the funniest games I’ve been a part of in a long time,” Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.

Dustin Pedroia crushed a three-run homer in the third inning; Coco Crisp added a solo shot in the seventh before Lowrie hit the eventual game-winning blast in the 11th. Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka had to settle for a no-decision and will have to wait until his next start to set the team’s single-season record for wins by a Japanese native (16).

The right-hander lasted six innings and allowed five runs on eight hits before the bullpen crew of Justin Masterson, Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon and Manny Delcarmen kept the Blue Jays scoreless the rest of the way. Papelbon earned the win, and Delcarmen notched his first save of the season.

“It’s huge,” Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay said of the victory. “A few of us were talking and it’s probably bigger than just a regular-season win. … It was a team effort of sorts, in all aspects, and we’re going to need to do that with one month left and some guys on the shelf for us.”

Bay made a crucial, possibly game-saving catch when he robbed the Jays’ Alex Rios of an extra-base hit in the bottom of the 10th inning. Rios drove a deep fly ball to left when Bay timed his stride and leap perfectly and made the catch before hitting the wall.

“It was a big win for us,” he said. “It was a real grind, but we had a lot of guys step up today. It was big for our team. We’re not looking in front of us, or behind us, we’re just trying to win that game.”

Francona continually preaches the importance of playing one game at a time. The old cliché is said time and again around the Red Sox clubhouse, and that’s a main reason why Boston has enjoyed success in the past.

Yesterday’s game wasn’t just any other game for Francona and his players.

“We’re at a point in the season where every game is important,” Francona said. “We’ve come out of this place with some tough losses, but it was a great win. We get out of here and we have a day to regroup, which we need to because we’ve got some guys beat up, but we did some really good things to win this game. I don’t want to take away any of the importance. I don’t want to downplay any of it.”

As Ellsbury took the ice pack off his shoulder, his eye swollen and cut, and his bruised and banged-up body was the example of how bad the Red Sox wanted to win yesterday.

“Ellsbury looks like he just got done with a 15-round fight,” Lowrie said. “We set a good tone today with this win and hopefully we can carry that over to New York. Any series we have with New York is going to be a big series, but when we come off of a win like this, everybody will show up with a little more energy and feed off this game.” Red Sox

6

Blue Jays

5

Next Game

Tomorrow

at Yankees

7:05 p.m.

jmcdonal@projo.com