Red Sox erupt for eight runs, snap losing streak against Braves

It hasn’t happened often this season, but on Wednesday night the Red Sox broke through offensively.

Boston erupted for six runs in the fourth inning against Bryce Elder and the Braves en route to an emphatic 8-0 victory at Fenway Park.

The win snapped Boston’s four-game losing streak and positioned the Red Sox to potentially take the series Thursday afternoon against an old friend in Chris Sale.

The six-run fourth inning marked Boston’s second-highest scoring inning of the season, trailing only the club’s 10-run ninth inning April 25 in Baltimore, Alex Cora’s final game as manager.

It also represented the most explosive offensive inning of Chad Tracy’s tenure as interim manager.

Boston’s breakout inning started with Masataka Yoshida, who jumped on the first pitch of the frame for a leadoff single, the first of his two hits during the 10-batter inning.

After Marcelo Mayer grounded out and a sacrifice bunt moved a runner into scoring position, Nick Sogard hit what looked like a routine ground ball that Matt Olson appeared poised to handle himself at first base. 

Instead, the ball took an awkward hop, skipped past Olson, and allowed Sogard to reach safely while Yoshida raced home with the game’s first run. Olson was charged with a fielding error on the play.

From there, the inning snowballed on Atlanta.

The Red Sox rattled off four consecutive singles from Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, who attacked the first pitch he saw, and Wilyer Abreu as Boston suddenly broke the game wide open.

“I actually thought we took some good at-bats in the first three innings and had some opportunities even in the early part of the game, but to capitalize in the fourth over and over again, and just keep building, building, and building with hit after hit was really good,” Tracy said after the game.

It marked the first time the Red Sox scored at least six runs in a single inning at Fenway Park since Sept. 14, 2025, and continued one of Boston’s most complete offensive innings of the season.

The Braves were forced to go to their bullpen in the middle of Boston’s explosive fourth inning, pulling Elder between singles from Rafaela and Abreu.

Elder lasted just 3 1/3 innings and was tagged for six runs, five earned, on nine hits while walking one and striking out only one batter. The right-hander threw 59 pitches, 41 for strikes, in one of his roughest outings of the season.

The Braves' hurler also committed a costly throwing error in the second inning when his errant toss turned Sogard’s infield single into a trip to third base. It was one of three Atlanta errors on the night as the Braves played an uncharacteristically sloppy game defensively.

Wednesday’s outing also snapped a remarkable stretch of consistency for Elder.

Entering the game, the right-hander had opened the season with 11 consecutive starts allowing three earned runs or fewer. According to the Braves, the streak was tied with Max Fried’s 11-start run in 2020 for the second-longest season-opening streak by an Atlanta pitcher since 2013, trailing only Reynaldo López’s 17-start stretch in 2024.

The Red Sox finished with one of their most complete offensive performances of the season.

Boston collected at least 15 hits for just the third time this year, with every member of the starting lineup recording at least one hit in the victory. The Red Sox also scored at least eight runs for the sixth time this season and for the first time since May 5 in Detroit.

More importantly, Boston finally capitalized in key situations. The Red Sox went 6-for-13 with runners in scoring position, though they still stranded eight runners on base.

Rafaela continued his recent hot stretch at the plate, finishing 3-for-5 with singles in each of his first three at-bats. The performance marked Rafaela’s 11th multi-hit game and fourth three-hit game of the season.

“Impressive,” Tracy said of Rafaela’s offensive output this season for the Red Sox. “The average and all that notwithstanding, just overall his swing decisions at the plate for the most part even just like in the month I’ve been here, is as good as I’ve seen, like he’s just being more particular about what he’s swinging at. And when he gets a good pitch to hit, he’s hit it hard.”

The dynamic outfielder is now hitting .285 with a .791 OPS overall this season and has been one of Boston’s hottest hitters for more than a month. Over his last 25 games dating back to April 25, Rafaela is batting .317 with a .908 OPS while continuing to provide elite defense in the outfield.

Duran was equally as impressive on Wednesday night. He went 4-for-5 night with a solo home run in the eighth, the first Red Sox extra-base hit of the night. The last time they scored as many as six runs in a Fenway frame without an extra-base hit was July 26, 2011.

“That’s crazy,” Tracy said of the team putting up their first seven runs without an extra-base hit until Duran’s homer late in the game. “But we stacked ’em. Singles work when you stack them.”

Duran is hitting .357 with a .429 OBP and a 1.191 OPS over his last 10 games with four home runs during that span. 

Mayer entered Wednesday hitting just .149 (10-for-67) with a .192 on-base percentage at Fenway Park this season. But the rookie shortstop delivered one of his better performances at home, finishing 2-for-4 while driving in a run with an RBI single in the seventh inning that extended Boston’s lead to 7-0.

Kiner-Falefa remains red hot at the plate, he has an RBI in four straight games, tying a career-high.

Connelly Early kept the Braves in check the entire night. He was rewarded with a standing ovation from the Red Sox’ faithful in attendance. 

“He was awesome, awesome,” Tracy said. “I mean, if you nitpick anything, I don’t even think I should with that outing, but a couple leadoff walks, and a couple other like, three-ball counts to the leadoff hitters, that’s about it. Other than that, he was outstanding.”

The left-hander improved to 5-2 on the season while lowering his ERA to 2.95 across 11 starts after tossing seven scoreless innings against one of baseball’s most dangerous lineups.

“It’s almost a little nice to be out there in the outfield and just kind of chill when he’s out there doing his thing,” Duran said. “Sometimes you get lost just watching him carve up there. But I’m not surprised. I don’t think anybody else in the clubhouse is surprised.”

Early allowed just four hits and three walks while striking out seven Braves hitters. Opponents are now batting just .217 against him this season. The rookie showcased the full arsenal throughout the outing, overpowering Atlanta with a fastball that touched 96 mph while generating 12 swings and misses overall.

“I think it’s just I throw a lot of pitches, a lot of different shapes, so they can’t just really expect the fastball to come,” Early said. “But I feel confident with the fastball. So been using it here and there and trying to use that as a swing-and-miss pitch. And it’s played pretty well, which is nice to see, obviously. Earlier in the game, I was spraying a little bit too much. Would have been really nice to have that from the very start.”

Seven of those whiffs came on his four-seam fastball, while his changeup produced three more. Early also generated a whiff with both his sinker and curveball as he consistently kept Atlanta hitters uncomfortable all night.

“Happy to get through seven there,” Early said. “To start with the three walks, it’s a little frustrating, so I was really, really pleased with how the later innings went.”

The outing also placed Early in rare company in Red Sox history.

The last Boston pitchers younger than 25 years old to record multiple starts of at least seven scoreless innings in a season were Jon Lester in 2008 and Roger Clemens in 1987. 

“You’re always very mindful of your resources down in the minor leagues and making sure you’re not overextending them, so that you’re not wasting bullets,” said Tracy. “But when they’ve been given the opportunities to pitch deep in the game, they’ve grabbed it and ran with it, and in some cases looked stronger at the end of the outing than sometimes they do at the beginning.”

From 2018 through 2025, the Red Sox did not have a single pitcher under the age of 25 record a seven-inning scoreless start.

Boston improved to 23-31 overall and 9-18 at Fenway Park with the victory, while the Braves fell to 37-19.

The two clubs will meet Thursday afternoon in the rubber game of the three-game series at Fenway Park.

Boston will hand the ball to rookie left-hander Payton Tolle (2-2, 2.45 ERA), while Atlanta counters with Sale, who enters at 7-3 with a 1.98 ERA and remains firmly in the National League Cy Young conversation.