TORONTO — After six innings of being scoreless and trailing seven innings, it took until the 10th inning for the Red Sox to take the lead for the first time Tuesday night. And once they had the lead, they held on.
The Red Sox scored three runs in extra innings to secure their fourth consecutive win, a 6-5 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays in 10 innings.
Trevor Story hit a single to left to score the first run. The second run came on an infield groundout and the third on Vaughn Grissom’s third hit of the night, a single.
The Red Sox nearly emptied their bullpen and used seven relievers to replace starter Brayan Bello. The Blue Jays answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning, but couldn’t get any closer as Chase Shugart earned his first major league save, getting out of a bases-loaded situation.
The Sox finally tied the game in the eighth inning when Romy Gonzalez and Triston Casas hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners without an out. After Story struck out, Masataka Yoshida hit a sharp grounder up the middle that forced Casas out at second base but allowed Gonzalez to score. The Sox then had runners on first and second base with two outs, but pinch-hitter Nick Sogard hit a flyout to left, ending the threat.
The Red Sox went scoreless through the first six innings, but they finally woke up in the seventh. Two consecutive walks with two outs followed by an infield single by Danny Jansen loaded the bases for Ceddanne Rafaela, who hit a sharp single to left, scoring Vaughn Grissom and Wilyer Abreu.
But the Sox, who had only allowed three hits before this inning, could no longer keep up on offense and left the two baserunners behind.
The Jays already led 2-0 and extended their lead with a solo run off Lucas Sims in the fifth inning. Sims was asking for trouble by walking the first batter he faced, infielder Davis Schneider, on base. Two batters later, George Springer, who always seems to hit against the Red Sox even when he’s in a slump, hit a line double off the wall in left-center, leaving Schneider standing at third base.
Nathan Lukes then hit a fly ball to the left that easily gave Schneider a point.
Red Sox starter Brayan Bello lost control in the third inning and that cost him the win.
The problems began when he walked Toronto’s No. 9 hitter Joey Loperfido with one out. After throwing out Springer for the second out of the inning, he issued another walk, this time to Lukes.
That brought Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to the field, and to make matters worse, Bello quickly fell behind, 2-0. After getting back in the game, he dropped a slider to the inside half that Guerrero hit on a line drive from the left-center field wall, scoring both baserunners.
In the meantime, the Red Sox had some chances but were unable to capitalize on them.
From the second through the fifth inning, the Sox managed to get the leadoff man on base, but they failed to advance runners. They hit leadoff doubles twice – by Story in the second and by Grissom in the fifth – and wasted the chances. Story was at least moved to third base; Grissom never left second base.
The Sox, who had 1 of 9 runners in scoring position in the Series opener on Monday, were 0 of 6 in that regard through the first five innings.
Last away game of the season, Wednesday
Until recently, the Red Sox were a very good road team in 2024. That was before they lost 9 of 10 road games in a September series.
In their final road game of the year, the Sox will field Richard Fitts (0-0, 0.00), who has not allowed an earned run in three games according to his ERA, against RHP Kevin Gausman (13-11, 3.91).
