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Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale whiffed just four Jays but it did the job as Boston closed out their three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays with a 5-4 victory at Rogers Centre Thursday night. TSN Baseball Reporter Scott Mitchell provides his key takeaways from the game:

GAME 24, APRIL 26: RED SOX AT JAYS

RESULT: 5-4 loss (Red Sox win series 2-1)

RECORD: 14-10

STREAK: L2

1—Perennial Cy Young contender Chris Sale came into the game sporting a 2.03 lifetime ERA against the Jays and an even stingier 0.96 ERA at Rogers Centre, but Thursday the lefty was not as dominant as usual. Jays bats got to him for a pair of home runs and three earned runs over six innings, giving them a chance to steal one against the Boston ace. Sale came into the game striking out a whopping 12.7 batters per nine innings, but he whiffed just four Jays.

2—On a night Marco Estrada recorded his 1,000th career strikeout, he also gave up five earned runs for the second straight start. Estrada relied heavily on his four-seam fastball Thursday against the Red Sox, throwing it 55 times out of 97 pitches. In his fifth and final inning, Estrada’s biggest mistake of the night was a first pitch fastball he left up in the zone to J.D. Martinez for a three-run homer, the seventh home run he’s given up in five starts. If he makes 33 starts, Estrada, who allowed 31 dingers last season, is now on pace to give up 46 homers.

3—Devon Travis got off the home run schneid, hitting his first long ball of the season in the second inning by turning on a four-seam fastball from Sale and sending it into the second deck in left field. It was just Travis’ eighth hit of the season as he struggles through another slow April. Travis would also triple (his first since 2016) and score in the seventh inning for his third multi-hit game of the season.

4—It was a slump-busting night all around as Justin Smoak also took Sale deep for his third home run of the season, and first since April 1. Smoak came into the game slashing just .122/.294/.171 over his last 11 games. While it’s a bit of a slow start for the big first baseman, Smoak isn’t far behind last year’s homer pace. Through 24 games last season, he had four home runs. Smoak finished the game 2-for-4 to push his season slash line to .241/.356/.414.

5—Since the Jays aren’t carrying a long man in the bullpen right now, manager John Gibbons has either been asking his starters to pitch deeper into games or trying to find ways to cobble things together with his relievers without overworking them. On this night, it was lefty Aaron Loup providing two very important clean innings behind Estrada, giving the Jays a chance for a late-game comeback. Loup, Seung-hwan Oh, and Danny Barnes combined for four scoreless innings of relief.

UP NEXT: LHP Mike Minor (1-1, 3.86) vs. RHP Marcus Stroman (0-2, 8.55) on Friday in series opener against Texas Rangers at Rogers Centre​