The Red Sox posted their second walk-off win in the last four days with a 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox.
Andrew Benintendi started the inning with a double into the right field corner, moved to third on a groundout to the right side, and after two intentional walks filled the bases, Marco Hernandez singled to the shortstop hole.
The Sox had not led until the winning run scored.
Trailing 5-3 in the seventh, Mookie Betts homered in the bottom of the inning and Eduardo Nunez tied the game an inning later with an RBI single into left, delivering pinch-runner Hernandez
Eduardo Rodriguez was charged with five runs in 6.1 innings
WHO: Red Sox vs. Chicago White Sox
WHEN: 7:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: Boston 3-1
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (8-4, 4.71) vs. RHP Lucas Giolito (10-2, 2.74)
TV/RADIO: NESN/MLB Network; WEEI 93.7 FM
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
9:52 Unusual step here with Alex Cora lifting Colten Brewer in the middle of an at-bat against Jon Jay. Lefty Josh Taylor on.
9:40 Familiar story: Sox can't come through with the big hit when needed. A two-out double by Devers goes to waste. Sox are 1-for-7 with RISP.
9:31 Homer by Mookie Betts to leadoff the bottom of the seventh -- a missile to the CF bleachers -- brings the Sox to within a run.
9:18 Rodriguez stays an inning too long and gives back the lead after the Sox tied the game in the previous inning -- a run-scoring single to Yonder Alonso, hitting .176 before tonight -- scores Eloy Jimenez from second.
9:10 Sox tie it thanks to a bases-loaded walk to Chavis, but leave the bases loaded as Eduardo Nunez goes down swinging against reliever Evan Marshall.
8:58 Xander Bogaerts saw his streak of consecutive games with a double snapped at seven Sunday. So, tonight, he starts another one, lashing a ball into the left field corner, sending Devers to third.
8:48 A pitch to Jose Abreu is almost identical to the one thrown to Jimenez four innings earlier -- and is similarly hard-hit. Abreu's homer is his 18th this season, a wicket shot that hits one of the advertising banners on the top of the Monster Seats and bounces back, with force, onto the playing field.
8:36 Eduardo Nunez takes a slider down-and-way and drives it on a line to right, scoring Chavis and the Sox have tied it up.
8:34 Michael Chavis gets under one -- a sky-high popup that scrapes the top of The Wall on its way down -- and gets a double out of it with one out.
8:12 Inexcusable sloppy baserunning by Rafael Devers, who remains off the third base bag by six feet and is promptly tagged out as left fielder Eloy Jimenez fires the ball to shortstop Tim Anderson at third.
7:43 It wasn't a line drive, but it was also well-struck -- Jackie Bradley Jr. gets a juicy four-seamer dead red and hammers it, just to the right of triangle, and into the first few rows of bleachers behind the Sox' bullpen.
7:36 Former Red Sox prospect Yoan Moncada gets a cutter down-and-in from Eduardo Rodriguez and hits a laser into the Monster Seats for a 2-0 lead. That ball got out of Fenway as fast as any this season.
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Betts RF
Benintendi LF
Martinez DH
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Bradley CF
Vazquez C
Chavis 1B
Nunez 2B
WHITE SOX
Garcia CF
Anderson SS
Abreu 1B
McCann C
Jimenez LF
Jay RF
Moncada 3B
Alfonso 1B
Rondon 2B
WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox dropped the final two games of their series with Toronto over the weekend, though they remain 8-3 in the last 11 games...The loss Sunday dropped the Red Sox under .500 (18-19) at Fenway this season...The Sox are 4-9 in their last 13 home games...From 2016-2018, the Red Sox were tied with the Yankees for the best home record during that period....The Sox won the final three games of a four-game series against the White Sox last month, outscoring them 30-5 in the three victories....Since the start of 2014, the Sox are 5-0-1 in series played in Chicago (13-7), but are only 1-3-1 in series at Fenway with the White Sox, going 9-10 in those games....Four Red Sox players have hitting streaks of five or more games -- Christian Vazquez (nine), Andrew Benintendi (eight), Eduardo Nunez (six) and Brock Holt (five)….Mookie Betts has a 14-game on-base streak.....Overall, the Red Sox rank fourth in the A.L. in runs per game (5.35), third in average (.263), second on on-base percentage (.340), and second in walks (310)...Since April 29, the Sox lead in the A.L. in runs per game (5.9)…..For the season, the Sox are first in baseball in batting average (.271) and on-base percentage (.351) against righthanded pitchers...The Sox have at least one double in all 22 games in June and at least one extra-base hit in their last 93 regular season games, the longest such active streak in MLB and longest for the franchise since 2004-2005 when they had a 164-game streak....During his current nine game hitting streak, Vazquez is batting .359 (14-for-39)….Since May 14, the Red Sox are 23-for-28 (82.1 percent), the A.L.'s second-best percentage behind only Kansas City (88.4 percent)...The Sox are one of just two teams with as many as five players with five or more steals: Betts (nine); Benintendi (eight); Devers (eight); Jackie Bradley Jr.(six) and Nunez (five)...J.D. Martinez is hitless in his last nine at-bats....Eduardo Rodriguez has thrown seven or more innings in back-to-back starts for the first time since 2015....The Sox are 11-2 in his last 13 starts...In his last four starts, Rodriguez has struck out 27 and walked just five....He's pitched at least five innings in each of his last nine starts and 12 of his last 13....James McCann is 3-for-13 lifetime against Rodriguez with two homers....Tim Anderson is 0-for-11....Martinez is 3-for-6 against Lucas Giolito while Betts is 3-for-5.
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- Brock Holt, predictably, was out of the lineup after suffering a hamstring strain. He's unlikely to play until London.
- Steven Wright is expected to be activated Tuesday after serving an 80-game PED suspension. Wright will pitch out of the bullpen and is already stretched out to three innings.
- Heath Hembree threw a bullpen Sunday but didn't bounce back as well as the Sox might have liked, so he'll wait another day or two before beginning a rehab assignment at Pawtucket. "He's feeling better,'' said Alex Cora, "but no way were we going to send him with the way he felt today.''
- Rafael Devers returned to the lineup after not starting in the three previous games. He suffered a hamstring strain in last Wednesday's road trip finale in Minnesota.