BOSTON (Ticker) -- In a span of 26 pitches - 19 of which were out of the strike zone - Jeff Tam managed to erase a lot of good for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Kevin Millar's bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh inning lifted the Boston Red Sox to their fifth straight win, a 7-3 triumph over the Blue Jays.
Tam (0-1) took over for Toronto starter Mark Hendrickson to start the seventh and inherited a 3-2 lead. Doug Mirabelli singled and was sacrificed over but Todd Walker and Nomar Garciaparra walked.
Tam uncorked a wild pitch that plated the tying run and Manny Ramirez was walked intentionally. Millar drew a five-pitch walk to force home the go-ahead run and a groundout by Shea Hillenbrand - who leads the American League in RBI with 20 - extended Boston's advantage to 5-3.
"I'd have to say I've never had a night like that," Tam said. "It was absolutely inexcusable. I was absolutely (garbage). Mark (Hendrickson) kept us in there and was great. For me to come in and throw like that is inexcusable. I'd rather come and get my head beat in than come in and walk the world."
"It's just patience, man, putting pressure on the pitchers," Millar said. "When you got guys in scoring position I think we weren't swinging at pitches he wanted us to swing at and we were getting in hitters' counts. I think we kept that pressure on the whole game and I think that's what blew the whole game open."
Mirabelli added a two-run homer in the eighth to cap the scoring.
Millar homered in the sixth and extended his hitting streak to 14 games, matching Cleveland's Milton Bradley and Chicago's Magglio Ordonez for the longest in the American League this season.
"Mentally you've got to stay strong and not try and do too much," Millar said. "Streaks are a blast and they all come to an end and you've got to drag them out as long as you can."
Toronto scored twice in the first inning against Boston starter Tim Wakefield (2-0). Carlos Delgado and Josh Phelps delivered two-out, RBI singles off the knuckleballer.
The Blue Jays manufactured a run in the third as Shannon Stewart was hit by a pitch, took second on a single and scored on a double by Delgado.
Hendrickson gave back a run in the fourth on a two-out, RBI single by Hillenbrand and another in the sixth on Millar's fifth homer of the season.
Hendrickson allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out two.
"I made good pitches tonight," Hendrickson said. "With Millar (on the home run), that was a good pitch, a curveball down. They only hit two or three balls hard all night. I can't be too disappointed with that."
Wakefield surrendered three runs - two earned - and seven hits in seven innings. He walked three and struck out six.
"It wasn't easy, I struggled basically the whole game, trying to get a feel," Wakefield said. "I got into situations a lot during the game where I needed to make one pitch and I was able to do that and my defense played great behind me today. Obviously, the offense came through in the bottom of the seventh."
Kevin Tolar worked a hitless eighth before Chad Fox struck out the side in the ninth.
Toronto, which is just 2-8 in its last 10 games, fell to 1-4 on its 11-game road trip.
