Sox top Cardinals in 13
St. Louis — Chris Young waited a long time for his opportunity Wednesday night and made the most of it. Young drove in the tiebreaking run with a pinchhit single in the 13th inning, and the Boston Red Sox rallied past the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 to sweep their two-game interleague series.
"In that situation, you get a runner in scoring position and you're just trying to find a way to put the bat on the ball," Young said. "We battled and our bullpen did an amazing job to give us the opportunity to win the ballgame and we're grateful for that."
Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a two-run homer in the seventh off starter Mike Leake to begin Boston's comeback from a four-run deficit. The Red Sox tied it in the eighth against reliever Trevor Rosenthal when Xander Bogaerts hit an RBI triple and scored on Andrew Benintendi's sacrifice fly.
Mitch Moreland doubled with two outs in the 13th and Bradley was intentionally walked before Young singled to left-center off Sam Tuivailala (2-1).
"This win felt big, the way we had to get it," Young said. "It was just one of those we had to persevere and we fought for."
Fernando Abad (1-0) tossed two scoreless innings for the win, and Ben Taylor got three outs for his first major league save.
"This one tonight was a lot of grit, a lot of character, a lot of competitive at-bats late in the game," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "Jackie with the big two-run homer that kind of got us off nothing because Leake was very good. This was big for us, particularly tonight. This is a big win. It's a huge shift. I think anytime you get this deep into an extra-inning game when you're depleting your bullpen, to come away with a win, they feel like two at times."
Dexter Fowler hit a leadoff homer for the Cardinals, who had won eight of 10. It was his fifth home run this season and the 22nd leadoff shot of his career.
Boston improved to 3-17 when trailing after seven innings, while St. Louis fell to 19-1 when leading after seven. The Cardinals had 12 hits but did not muster one in the final five innings.
"Not a lot of opportunities," manager Mike Matheny said. "They came in throwing the ball well out of the bullpen and we just couldn't put hits on top of each other."