TORONTO

Ryan Dempster remained undefeated in his homeland.

Dempster won his second straight outing and the Boston Red Sox took advantage of a season-high 10 walks to beat the struggling Toronto Blue Jays 3-1 on Thursday night.

Dempster, from British Columbia, is 6-0 in 10 starts in Canada, the first nine in Montreal.

“I’m looking for more expansion teams in Canada,” he joked. “That’s kind of the goal. Maybe Vancouver will get a team, or Winnipeg or something, so I can hopefully keep that going.”

Dempster is the first Canadian born Red Sox starter to win in Canada since Rheal Cormier beat the Blue Jays in Toronto in 1995.

Dempster (2-2) allowed one run and four hits in six innings. The right-hander, who walked three and struck out four, retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced. That streak began with a double play grounder to escape a bases-loaded jam after three walks in the third.

“I was able to make a couple of big pitches, especially with the bases loaded, and get out of my own mess I made,” he said.

Winless in his first four starts this season, Dempster posted his first victory by beating Houston a week ago.

Andrew Miller got two outs in seventh and Junichi Tazawa got the third. Koji Uehara pitched the eighth and Joel Hanrahan finished for his fourth save in five chances and the 100th save of his career.

Hanrahan got the call in the ninth because regular closer Andrew Bailey was unavailable.

“He’s felt some discomfort in the biceps,” Farrell said of Bailey. “He got on the mound a little bit before the game yesterday and felt the discomfort. It was still there today so he was unavailable.”

Hanrahan, who was activated off the DL Tuesday, said Farrell told him during batting practice that Bailey was unavailable, and to be ready for the save opportunity if it came up.

“We’re a better team when Bailey and I are both healthy,” Hanrahan said. “Hopefully he’ll only be down for a day or two.”

Boston improved its major league-best road record to 9-3 and won its seventh series in nine tries this season.

The Red Sox have won eight of 10 and are 20-8 overall, their best start since opening 20-7 in 2002.

Brett Lawrie homered and Colby Rasmus had three hits but the last-place Blue Jays lost for the 12th time in 16 games. Toronto dropped to 4- 12 against AL East opponents.

Lawrie connected leading off the bottom of the first, his third homer of the season and the third leadoff shot of his career.

Boston took the lead with a two-run second. Mike Napoli doubled and scored on Mike Carp’s single to right, and Stephen Drew drove in Will Middlebrooks with a sacrifice fly.

Napoli’s double was his ML-leading 22nd extra-base hit.

Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ allowed two runs and three hits in 3 2-3 innings, his shortest start of the season and his shortest since May, 2009. Happ (2-2) matched a career high with seven walks and struck out two.

Happ left after walking the bases loaded with two out in the fourth, but reliever Brad Lincoln came on and got Dustin Pedroia to ground into a fielder’s choice.

David Ross drew a leadoff walk from Lincoln in the sixth and moved to second on a wild pitch. Steve Delabar replaced Lincoln but allowed an RBI single to Jacoby Ellsbury.

• Who: Boston Red Sox at
Texas Rangers.
• Where: Rangers Ballpark
in Arlington
• When: 8:05 p.m. tonight.
• Starting pitchers: Boston
(Felix Doubront 3-0) vs.
Texas (Derek Holland 1-2).
• TV: NESN.