TORONTO — Alfredo Aceves had a message for his manager after Boston’s 0-3 start: Keep trusting in us, and it’ll all work out.
Monday night in Toronto, Aceves showed exactly what he meant.
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Ryan Sweeney singled home the go-ahead run and the Red Sox rallied for three runs in the ninth inning to beat the Blue Jays 4-2 on Monday, spoiling Toronto’s home opener and avoiding the first back-to-back 0-4 starts in team history.
“What a great effort by a whole group of guys out there tonight,” Manager Bobby Valentine said.
Seeking to lift his skipper’s spirits after he had coughed up a ninth-inning lead Sunday in the finale of a season-opening sweep at the hands of Detroit, Aceves penned a message of support to Valentine before Monday’s game.
“He wrote me a little note,” Valentine said. “It talked about trust. I told him I trusted him. He knew he was going to have the ball.”
Aceves said the message was a simple one.
“I just said ‘trust,’ ” he said. “We’ve still got to trust, you know? It’s been like three games and everything was negative. But we stick together and one of those things is trust.”
Dustin Pedroia homered in the sixth and scored the tying run in the ninth as the Red Sox handed new Blue Jays closer Sergio Santos his second blown save in three appearances.
“We had a couple of tough ones in Detroit but we’re going to bounce back and play as hard as we can every single night,” Pedroia said.
Handed a 2-1 lead to start the ninth, Santos (0-1) surrendered a leadoff double to Pedroia, who advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on a sacrifice fly by Adrian Gonzalez.
“Adrian has shown me in a short time that he’s as good as there is in the game,” Valentine said.
Kevin Youkilis struck out before David Ortiz and Cody Ross drew consecutive walks. After a visit to the mound by pitching coach Bruce Walton, Sweeney hit an RBI single through the right side.
Darnell McDonald, pinch running for Ortiz, slid home safely when Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia couldn’t handle the throw from Jose Bautista, a miscue that also allowed both runners to advance. Ross scored soon when Santos uncorked a wild pitch that bounced into Boston’s dugout along the first-base line.
Making his first home appearance since being acquired in a December trade with the White Sox, Santos was booed off the mound by the crowd of 48,473 when Manager John Farrell came out to replace him with Luis Perez.
“I’d be booing, too,” Santos said. “It wasn’t pretty.”
Scott Atchison (1-0) worked three shutout innings for his first win since July 23, 2010, and Aceves closed it out with a perfect ninth for his first save, rebounding after failing to retire a batter in his two previous outings this season.
“His breaking ball was really good, his fastball was crisp,” Valentine said.
Making his fourth career start, and his first since July 16, 2010, Red Sox left-hander Felix Doubront allowed two runs and four hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out a career-high six.
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