Trevor Story’s late homer lifts Red Sox to Labor Day thriller at Fenway

Trevor Story homered, drove in two runs, and finished with three hits, leading the Red Sox to a 6-4 win over the Guardians on a Monday in a Labor Day matinee at Fenway Park.

Story’s sixth-inning homer — initially ruled a double before being overturned on review — provided a key insurance run and put the Sox up by three runs. Boston improved to 77-62 and now sits just 2 1/2 games behind the Blue Jays for first place in the American League East.

“Baseball is a crazy game, and I feel like two games is nothing,” Story said. “With that being said, we’re locked in on what we have to do each night to win and not worried about what anyone else is doing, and if we take care of our business, then we’ll be where we want to be at the end.”

The Red Sox, whose team slogan has been “Tremendously Locked In,” jumped out quickly in front of a packed holiday crowd of 36,021. In the first inning, Roman Anthony singled on a grounder to right field and later scored on a balk by Guardians starter Parker Messick. Romy González added a run-scoring single for a 2-0 lead.

No team has had more balks committed against them than the Red Sox, according to reporter Marcos Grunfeld. Opponents have balked 14 times, which has led to six runs for Boston.

Cleveland answered in the second and attacked Red Sox starter Brayan Bello in the second inning. C.J. Kayfus singled in a run, and Brayan Rocchio followed with a two-run hit, pushing the Guardians ahead 3-2.

Boston was able to tie the game in the home half of the inning after Messick allowed runners on the corners with two outs. It set the table for Story to tie the game 3-3 with an RBI single.

Bello labored through the first handful of innings, needing a total of 100 pitches to get through five frames. He allowed three runs on six hits, walked three, and struck out four.

“It was a grind for Brayan, a lot of foul balls, a lot of lefties; they’re going to put the ball in play, and they found holes, but he was able to give us five, and in the past that’s 3.2, five runs, six runs,” Alex Cora said about his starter. “That’s who he is right now; he gave us a chance to win.”

Bello struggled in the first two innings but settled in and tried to go as deep as possible.

“My focus was to get quick outs so I can go deep into the game, go five or six,” Bello said via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “Luckily I was able to do that.”

Messick faltered and was pulled after 3 2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs off nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Once he left the game, the Sox’ lineup feasted on the Guardians' bullpen. With three righties due up for the Red Sox, including lefty killer Rob Refsnyder to lead off the inning, Cleveland opted to bring in southpaw Erik Sabrowski to start the fifth.

Refsnyder hammered a double off the Guardians' lefty, and Sabrowski walked Nate Eaton and drilled Ceddanne Rafaela to load the bases. Cora went to his bench and pinch-hit Carlos Narvaez, and the rookie smoked a two-run single to put the Sox back in front, 5-3. Boston reloaded the bases after the go-ahead single but failed to come through and plate more runs. Anthony struck out, and Alex Bregman grounded into an inning-ending double play to end the rally.

The two-run single was Narvaez’s first career pinch hit. He was previously 0-for-4 with two strikeouts as a pinch hitter in his career, including going 0-for-3 this season.

With the Sox holding a 5-3 advantage in the sixth inning, Story struck again, hitting a ball into the corner near the Pesky Pole that was initially ruled a foul ball, but following a replay review, the crew chief overturned the call to a home run. The ball went off the glove of right fielder Jhonkensy Noel and touched the foul pole before falling back into Noel’s glove.

The blast was his 23rd of the season and gave Boston a 6-3 edge.

“It was nice; it was obviously cool to get one off Pesky’s Pole. I think that’s the first one I’ve got,” Story said after the game. “It was crazy; I didn’t know what was going on at first, and in the last few clips I saw it hit the pole, so I felt good about it.”

In the win, Story (3-for-4) matched a season high, getting on base four times, and it was his 10th game with three hits or more, and it was his team-leading 40th multi-hit game. The Red Sox are 21-1 when Story homers in a game this year and are 34-7 since he joined the team in 2022.

“I think Trevor is kind of like the game changer. Him hitting 20-plus homers and running the bases well, and we’ve been talking about homers, but now it’s the average; he’s up to like .260,” Cora said. “This is a really good season for a guy that not too many people thought was going to be able to do it.”

The Guardians got a run back from a solo shot by Kyle Manzardo off left-hander Steven Matz in the seventh, but the Red Sox’ bullpen shut things down the remainder of the way.

Fresh off his new contract extension, Aroldis Chapman closed it out in the ninth, striking out one in a perfect inning for his 28th save.

The two teams will play the second game of their series on Tuesday with the first pitch at 6:45 p.m. The Red Sox will have ace Garrett Crochet (14-5, 2.40 ERA) take the ball and will start opposite Guardians righty Slade Cecconi (5-6, 4.41 ERA).