After rallying to tie the game in the top of the ninth, the euphoria didn't last long for the Red Sox.
Minutes after the Sox pulled even, Leury Garcia belted a two-out homer to center, giving the White Sox a 2-1 walk-off victory. The homer came off Garrett Whitlock, who was pitching for the second straight game.
The Sox had come back against Craig Kimbrel, who allowed a double and two walks to load the bases before yielding a sacrifice fly to Alex Verdugo.
WHO: Red Sox (81-63) vs. Chicago White Sox (81-61)
WHEN: 2:10 p.m.
WHERE: Guaranteed Rate Field
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: 3-3
SERIES TO DATE: 1-1
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nick Pivetta (9-7, 4.67) vs. RHP Lance Lynn (10-4, 2.59)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM 93.7
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Hernandez 2B
Schwarber LF
Renfroe RF
Devers 3B
Verdugo CF
Dalbec 1B
Shaw DH
Plawecki C
Iglesias SS
WHITE SOX
Robert CF
Moncada 3B
Abreu DH
Jimenez LF
Grandal 1B
Garcia SS
Sheets RF
Hernandez 2B
Zavala C
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T9: Bases-loaded sacrifice fly by Alex Verdugo ties the game, with Craig Kimbrel blowing his second save in as many games against his former team.
B6: Sloppy defense costs the Sox a run: first, Kike Hernandez makes an error to allow Cesar Hernandez to reach. Then, with one out and Hernandez at second, Luis Robert stings a single to left and instead of throwing the ball to second, Kyle Schwarber throws home, allowing Robert to get into scoring position. That's it for Pivetta; on.
T6: Iglesias faceplants as he tries to move up to second on a long flyout to the warning track. As he stumbles going into his slide, he comes up short and is tagged out.
T6: Sox will not be sorry to have Lynn leave the game after five shutout innings with just two hits allowed. Garrett Crochet on.
T5: Contact has been an issue -- with 24 strikeouts in the last 15 innings, dating back to Saturday night.
B4: Pivetta looks sharp and hardly like someone just off the COVID-IL -- two hits allowed through four innings with five strikeouts.
T3: Red Sox haven't been able to do much at all against Lance Lynn to date -- the one they have is a swinging bunt by Jose Iglesias. Lynn has attacked the strike zone aggressively and has five strikeouts.
B2: Bobby Dalbec continues to show great improvement at first in recent weeks. Have to believe that some of that is related to his success at the plate in the last six weeks, giving him more confidence overall. He turns a nice 3-5-3 double play there to help out Nick Pivetta.
WHAT's UP: The Red Sox are 6-4 in September... They are 2-4 in their last 6 games, following a 4-game winning streak...They are 11-9 in their last 20 games... In 7 of their last 8 wins (including each of their last 4), the Red Sox were tied or trailing when they came to bat in the 7th inning...Last night, they trailed 8-7 before scoring 1 run in the 8th and 1 in the 10th. The Sox have 41 come-from-behind wins, 2nd-most in the majors behind the Rays (43). Each of the Sox’ last 3 wins has been by 1 run...They are 26-16 (.619) in 1-run games, MLB’s 5th-best recorrd...The Red Sox are 10-5 (.667) in extra-inning games, MLB’s 5th-best record...They are 7-1 in extra-inning games on the road, the best record in the majors among teams who have played at least 4 extra-inning road games. Prior to 2021, the last seasons in which the Sox won as many as 7 extra-inning games on the road were 2017 (8-2), 2003 (7-4), and 1982 (7-3). ....The Red Sox held the White Sox scoreless in the final 5.0 innings last night...They have allowed only 7 ER in their last 3 games (2.33 ERA, 27.0 IP). Red Sox relievers have allowed only 1 ER in their last 12.1 IP (0.73 ERA). ...The Red Sox have homered in 18 of their last 19 games, including each of their last 8...They rank 4th in the AL and 8th in the majors with 191 HR. The Sox lead MLB with 36 HR with at least 2 runners on base (33 three-run, 3 grand slams). The Sox have hit 4+ HR in a game 13 times, 2nd-most in franchise history (15 times in 1977). ....Travis Shaw broke an 8-8 tie with a 10thinning RBI single last night, after hitting a 3-run HR in the 3rd inning...In 17 games since the Red Sox claimed him off waivers from the Brewers, Shaw has a 1.000 OPS, with 6 of his 8 hits going for extra bases (8-for-30, 3 HR, 3 2B, 10 RBI). ....The Red Sox have played more games than any other team in the majors (144)...They finish the season by playing only 20 games in 25 days from 9/9-10/3. The Sox have 18 games remaining in the regular season (10 road, 8 home)...Their best 18-game stretch of the season is 13-5 (several times). 7 of the Sox’ remaining games are vs. teams with a winning record (CWS-1, SEA-3, NYY-3) and 11 are vs. teams with a losing record (BAL-6, WSH-3, NYM-2). ....The Red Sox are 7-15 in their last 22 road games, but 5-4 in their last 9...They are 5-0-1 in their last 6 series at Guaranteed Rate Field (2014-19). The Sox have averaged 5.7 runs per game at home (1st in AL), compared to 4.4 on the road (10th in AL). ...The Red Sox have used 55 players this season, tied for their 2nd-most in franchise history...They used 56 players in 2012, and 55 in 1996 and 2014. The Sox have used 32 pitchers, their most in franchise history...That does not include 4 position players who have pitched (Araúz, Arroyo, Gonzalez, Plawecki). 9 players have made their MLB debut with the Red Sox this season (Bazardo, Crawford, Duran, Espinal, López, Sawamura, Seabold, Whitlock, and Wong)...Since 7/31 (min. 100 PA), Bobby Dalbec leads the majors in SLG (.758) and leads the AL in OPS (1.159) and wRC+ (201)...In those 34 games, he has hit .323 (32-for-99) with 11 HR, 33 RBI, and a .402 OBP. Dalbec has 7 HR and 19 RBI in his last 14 games (beginning 8/26)...He is 1 of 11 Sox rookies ever to hit 21+ HR in a season (only 8 have hit more than 21)...In 141 career games, he has hit 29 HR with 87 RBI...The Red Sox lead the majors in doubles (295) and XBH (506) and rank 4th in runs per game (5.07), 3rd in AVG (.261), 2nd in SLG (.447), and 3rd in OPS (.774). The Sox lead the majors in 2-strike RBI (294), 40 more than any other team...With 2 strikes, the Sox also lead MLB in XBH (177) and lead the AL in HR (74)...They have hit an MLB-best 18 HR in 0-2 counts. The Sox lead the majors in runs scored with 2 outs (303)...With RISP & 2 outs, the Sox lead the majors in OPS (.840) and lead the AL in AVG (.265). ...The Red Sox feature 6 players who have hit 20+ HR this season: Rafael Devers (33), Kyle Schwarber (29), Hunter Renfroe (27), J.D. Martinez (25), Bobby Dalbec (21), and Xander Bogaerts (20). The Sox are the only team featuring as many as 5 players with 50+ XBH (17 teams have 0 or 1)....From the No. 9 spot in the batting order, the Red Sox lead the majors in HR (17) and XBH (46). The Sox have hit more than 17 HR from the No. 9 spot in the order only twice: 2003 (24) and 2011 (18)... They also hit 17 in 1999. ....Red Sox outfielders lead MLB with 39 assists, their most in a season since 1992 (also 39)... They last had 40+ outfield assists in 1987 (47). Hunter Renfroe leads MLB with 16 OF assists, the most in RF by a Red Sox in the expansion era (1961-present)... According to Elias, the only other Red Sox with 15 assists in RF since 1961 is Dwight Evans (3 times).
NOTES:
* For the third straight game, J.D. Martinez was in the provisional lineup, but was scratched an hour before gametime with back spasms. He was again replaced in the order by Travis Shaw at DH.
* Xander Bogaerts, who returned from a 10-day quarantine without the benefit of a rehab assignment and played Friday and Saturday, gets the day off. Jose Iglesias replaces him at short. "Hopefully, it helps him,'' said Alex Cora. "That's why today is so important -- not playing for 'x' amount of games, playing two long games, a day game here. He can reset and be ready for (Monday). Most likely, he'll play two (of three) in Seattle, and that's it. After that, the schedule (with some off-days) will benefit us. But we have to make sure that he's close to 100 percent. That's the reason we gave him today off.''