For at least one more night, the Red Sox remain in the playoff hunt.
The Red Sox staved off elimination on Tuesday, rallying for six unanswered runs before hanging on for dear life in a 6-5, 10-inning win over the Toronto Blue Jays. Boston scored three times in the top of the 10th to pull ahead, and with the bases loaded and two runs already in, Chase Shugart forced Addison Barger to pop out to end the game.
Trevor Story delivered the go-ahead RBI double, Connor Wong drove in a run from third with a groundout and Vaughn Grissom capped things off with what wound up being the game-winning RBI single.
Though the season didn’t start off the way anyone hoped for Brayan Bello, the Red Sox opening day starter still managed to make something of this season. Bello capped off his resurgent second half with a respectable performance in what will likely be his final start of the season.
Bello allowed two runs over four innings and 75 pitches, and he should now finish the year with a 4.49 ERA over 162.1 innings in 30 starts. He also posted a 3.47 ERA over his last 13 starts following the All-Star break.
While Bello has typically benefitted from strong run support, it didn’t happen for him Tuesday until after he’d left the mound.
Blue Jays starter Bowden Francis, who has come within three outs of pitching a no-hitter twice this season, dominated the Red Sox over five shutout innings. Francis allowed three hits, one walk and struck out four, and overall he’s now thrown 13 shutout innings in three outings against Boston this season.
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays capitalized on two walks by Bello in the bottom of the third with a two-run double by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Toronto added a third run against right-hander Lucas Sims in the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Nathan Lukes, and while a miscommunication in the outfield by Ceddanne Rafaela and Wilyer Abreu in the sixth led to a routine fly ball falling in, the Red Sox were able to strand runners at second and third to keep the game within reach.
That proved crucial moments later.
With two outs in the top of the seventh Vaughn Grissom and Wilyer Abreu drew consecutive walks and Danny Jansen singled to load the bases. That set the table for Rafaela, and the rookie delivered with a two-run single to make it a 3-2 ballgame. He now has 75 RBI on the season.
Then in the eighth, the Red Sox tied the game after Romy Gonzalez and Triston Casas led off the inning with back-to-back singles. Masataka Yoshida then scored Gonzalez with a grounder that could have been an inning-ending double play but only went for a forceout at second.
Relievers Luis Guerrero and Chris Martin kept the Blue Jays off the board in the eighth and ninth innings to force extras. Both benefitted from backbreaking double plays that erased leadoff walks, which for Martin was the first he’d allowed since April.
It turned out the Red Sox needed all three runs they scored in the 10th, because things got incredibly dicey in the bottom of the frame. Toronto first cut the deficit to two with Leo Jimenez’s RBI double and then drew three walks against Zach Penrod and Shugart, the latter of which came with the bases loaded courtesy of Alejandro Kirk, which made it 6-5.
But with the bases still loaded and two outs, Shugart finally ended it by drawing a pop out to third.
With the win Boston’s fading playoff hopes will survive for at least one more day. By virtue of Kansas City’s own extra-innings win over the Washington Nationals, the Red Sox now find themselves 3.5 games below the playoff cutline with four games to play.
All the Red Sox can do now is win and pray.
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