Winning 26 of their past 29 games was already an impressive run of success for the Boston Red Sox. Yet during this streak to remember, how they won that 26th game was particularly memorable.
The Red Sox rallied from behind five times in a 12-11 win over the Chicago White Sox in 13 innings on Thursday night at Fenway Park. In the 13th inning, following an intentional walk to Wilyer Abreu by White Sox reliever Erick Fedde, Caleb Durbin hit a sinker up the middle to score designated runner Nick Sogard for the walk-off victory.
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To get to the 13th inning, Boston had to tie the score in the 12th.
Designated runner Jarren Duran advanced to third base on a wild pitch from Chris Murphy with one out. He was driven home by new addition Jake Rogers, who got ahead on a 3-0 count before getting a fastball in the middle of the strike zone and hitting it to center field for a sacrifice fly.
Boston had to come back from a deficit throughout the game before its walk-off in the 13th.
The White Sox began by taking a 2-0 lead in the third inning on a two-run homer by Chase Meidroth. That became a 4-0 lead on a walk to Miguel Vargas and a single from Randal Grichuk. Both runners scored on a single by Colson Montgomery followed by a throwing error from Ceddanne Rafaela.
The Red Sox chipped away at that lead in the bottom of the inning on a two-run shot by Connor Wong. Chicago boosted its lead to 5-2 on an RBI double in the fourth from Sam Antonacci. But Boston tied the score on consecutive singles by Durbin and Masataka Yoshida before an RBI double by Andruw Monasterio and a two-run double from Anthony Seigler.
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In the fifth, the White Sox took a 7-5 lead on a two-run single from Braden Montgomery, aided by a throwing error by Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten. A Yoshida RBI single in the sixth cut Chicago’s lead to one run and Abreu drove in the tying run in the bottom of the ninth.
With the score tied 7-7, Meidroth hit his second two-run homer of the game, this one off Aroldis Chapman in the 10th inning. The Red Sox rallied to tie the score again on an RBI double from Monasterio, an intentional walk to Duran and sacrifice fly by Seigler.
Boston fell behind once more in the 11th on a Colson Montgomery sacrifice fly, scoring Vargas who advanced to third base with a wild pitch from Garrett Whitlock. But the Red Sox deadlocked the score at 10-10 on a Rafaela single and sacrifice fly to score Sogard.
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The White Sox took their final lead in the 12th inning on singles from Tristan Peters and Antonacci to go up 11-10.
Luis Castillo allowed 5 runs and 6 hits over 4 innings in his debut for the White Sox after being acquired from the Seattle Mariners on Saturday. He was one of eight pitchers Chicago had to use Thursday. Brayan Bello got the win as the ninth pitcher for Boston, throwing two innings.
The Red Sox are 12 games over .500 after previously being 12 games under the break-even point. And amid this improbable season, Boston is the first team in the modern era (since 1900) to score in the ninth inning or later during the same game five separate times, according to OptaSTATS.
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At 63-51, the Red Sox are a half-game behind the New York Yankees for second place in the AL East and now hold the league’s second wild-card playoff spot by 6.5 games. They will attempt to keep the good times rolling while hosting the Athletics for a three-game set before going on a seven-game trip to Toronto and Pittsburgh.
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