Red Sox outlast Blue Jays in early-morning marathon

Wins have been hard to come by for the Red Sox in the last few weeks, but this? This was ridiculous.

On Tuesday night – and yes, Wednesday morning, too – they had to play the equivalent of more than two games just to earn one win and snap their three-game losing streak.

It took the second-longest game in Fenway Park history, 16 position players and a franchise-record 12 pitchers for the Red Sox to outlast the Toronto Blue Jays in 19 innings, 3-2.

The Sox were shutout for the first eight innings, and after rallying for two in the bottom of the ninth, were held scoreless for nine more before, finally, mercifully, Hanley Ramirez blooped a single into shallow center to score Mookie Betts from second.

The victory required 287 pitches by Red Sox pitchers alone, and eventually, they got the hang of thing: after allowing two runs to the Jays in the first six innings, the bullpen combined for 13 consecutive scoreless innings, buying time for the offense to eke out a run.

At times, it was reasonable to wonder if that run was ever going to materialize. The Sox stranded runners in the 10th, 11th, 13th and 15th innings. Finally, with Betts standing on second following a leadoff double in the 19th, Ramirez flared the ball into center.

“At the time, I think things just kind of happened quickly,’’ said Betts. “I wasn’t looking around to see or anything. I just kind of turned out and saw that (Toronto center fielder Kevin) Pillar was on a full sprint in and I just pretty much said, ‘I don’t think he’s going to catch it,’ and just trusted my instincts. And he didn’t.’’

That wasn’t the first alert baserunning play on the part of the Betts. In the ninth, with the Sox trailing 2-0 but with Andrew Benintendi at third and Betts at second and no out, Ramirez hit a chopper to third baseman Josh Donaldson.

Benintendi raced home and Donaldson decided to get the easy out at first, but as soon as he fired across the infield, Betts moved up from second to third. From there, he was able to scoring the tying run when the next hitter, Mitch Moreland, hit a grounder to second. Had Betts not advanced on the previous play, the Sox might have lost in nine.

“I wasn’t sure if (Donaldson) was going to go for Benny at home,’’ Betts recounted. “But once I saw that he decided to go to first, I took a couple of steps back toward second and then I just told myself I had to get to third to give us a better chance to score there. I was just trying to be aggressive.’’

Betts couldn’t have known that there would be another three-plus hours and 10 more innings of baseball before things got resolved.

Two innings later, Jackie Bradley Jr. had to preserve the tie. With one out and Jose Bautista at third representing the go-ahead run, Justin Smoak hit a fly ball to center. Bradley, knowing that he would have to make a strong throw home, circled in back of the ball in order to give himself a running start.

“I knew it was going to be a do-or-die situation,’’ said Bradley, “so I just tried to line it up and make a good throw.  It’s very important (to line up behind the catch and gain momentum). At the distance I was, I definitely wanted to get some momentum. I  wanted to be quick and also accurate and kind of put something on the ball and not be too aggressive and let the game speed up on me.’’

The throw arrived at the plate on one hop, beating Bautista by a good 10 feet. Catcher Sandy Leon only needed to apply the tag to complete the double play.

From there, the game became an endurance test for everyone.

“Obviously, everybody’s tired,’’ said Betts. “But you just have to stay strong mentally. Wherever the mind goes, the body follows. We were able to tough it out.''

‘This was a mentally tough win,’’ said Bradley. “We had to fight to get back into it (in the ninth) and then everybody was grinding on both sides and we were able to edge them out tonight…this morning.’’