Sox get last laugh
End 3-game slide with ugly walkoff win in 9th
The Red Sox pushed away the unimaginable last night, squeaking past the Marlins, 8-7, to avoid their first four-game losing streak of the season.
The result was indeed a win — J.D. Martinez scored on a walkoff error in the ninth inning — but there was little satisfaction over how it was earned by a team playing its worst baseball at a time when the Yankees are hitting their stride.
The Red Sox bullpen was atrocious last night. Matt Barnes and Heath Hembree combined to give up five runs in the eighth inning, turning a 4-1 lead into a 6-4 deficit.
The Sox hitters fought back, scoring three times in the eighth to hand closer Craig Kimbrel a 7-6 lead.
Kimbrel’s performance was not a complete debacle, just a debacle. He allowed two walks before Magneuris Sierra singled to right field to plate the tying run.
The winning run came on Eduardo Nunez’ fielder’s choice grounder, the relay throw from shortstop JT Riddle skipping past first baseman Miguel Rojas allowing Martinez to score from second base.
The Red Sox were comfortably ahead, 4-1, in the top of the eighth, but Barnes gave up backto-back home runs to tie the game and quiet a crowd looking for the hosts to snap out of a recent slide in which they lost six times in eight games.
The hush grew more uncomfortable when Barnes’ replacement, Hembree, gave up two runs on a bloop single to left that gave the Marlins the 6-4 lead.
The Red Sox began the bottom of the eighth with a single from three of the first four batters against flame-throwing Tayron Guerrero. With the bases loaded and two outs, Jackie Bradley Jr. laced a single in between the shortstop and second baseman to drive in a pair of runs. Ian Kinsler then scored the go-ahead run when Guerrero uncorked a wild pitch with Mookie Betts at the plate.
After being swept by the Rays over the weekend, the Red Sox returned home to face Florida’s other team, the rebuilding Marlins. The only other times a Red Sox team has gone an entire season without losing four games in a row were in 1903 and 2013, both seasons ending in World Series victories.
Ultimately, the Red Sox did not waste their shot.
With starter Brian Johnson doing his job, if briefly — 41⁄3 innings, one run allowed — the Red Sox lineup allowed a 1-1 tie a short shelf life, scoring twice in the third, once more in the sixth and that should have been enough — until everything caved in on them in the eighth.
The third inning rally began with Bradley’s single off Marlins starter Jose Urena, who then walked Betts and allowed an RBI double to Andrew Benintendi for a 2-1 Sox lead.
After a strikeout and an intentional walk of Martinez, Urena gave up a sacrifice fly by Xander Bogaerts to score Betts.
In the top of the fourth, Johnson looked to be in trouble when leadoff hitter Starlin Castro hit a triple off the center-field wall that Bradley barely missed. Johnson worked out of the jam with a strikeout and two popouts to strand Castro and keep the Red Sox’ lead at 3-1.
Eduardo Nunez hit a linedrive home run that just cleared the top of the Green Monster in the sixth inning to extend the Red Sox lead to 4-1.
Johnson cruised through the first seven batters of the game but hit a big pothole when Isaac Galloway launched a solo home run to deep left-center field to tie the game in the third.
The Sox struck first in the second. Bogaerts led off with a smart double, taking advantage of the slightest hesitation from the outfielder on a ball hit to the gap in right-center to turn an easy single into a hard-earned two-bagger. After advancing to third, Bogaerts scored on Kinsler’s single down the left-field line for the 1-0 lead.
The Red Sox have now won 21 of their last 25 interleague games, 18 of their last 21 at Fenway.