Red Sox refuse to lose, walk off White Sox in 13-inning thriller for eighth straight win

At this point, what else can you say about the run the Red Sox are on?

They fell behind by four runs after the third inning. They were down to their final strike in the ninth. They watched the White Sox take the lead in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings. And somehow, every single time, they found a way to answer before ultimately sending Fenway Park into a frenzy.

In the bottom of the 13th, Caleb Durbin finally ended the madness, lining an RBI single to give Boston a wild 12-11 walkoff victory over Chicago on Thursday night.

The Red Sox have won eight straight games, improved to 63-51 and completed a 6-0 sweep of the season series against the White Sox.

Before Durbin could win it, Brayan Bello gave Boston its first clean extra inning of the night, keeping Chicago's automatic runner from scoring in the top of the 13th.

But before all that could happen, the Red Sox needed comeback after comeback just to get there.

Trailing 7-6 entering the bottom of the ninth, Connor Wong doubled off the Green Monster to start the inning. Pinch-runner Eli White advanced to third on Nick Sogard's sacrifice bunt, but Ceddanne Rafaela struck out to leave Boston down to its final out.

Wilyer Abreu got down to his final strike before lining a 98.9 mph sinker into center field to tie the game, 7-7.

Former Red Sox prospect Chase Meidroth appeared to deliver the knockout blow in the 10th when he launched a two-run homer off Aroldis Chapman, giving Chicago a 9-7 lead. It was Meidroth's second homer of the night and the first multi-homer game of his career.

What seemed like a haymaker from Meidroth only knocked the Red Sox down briefly and they answered immediately.

Andruw Monasterio doubled home Abreu to cut the deficit to one before Anthony Seigler's sacrifice fly tied it again.

Monasterio extended his career-long on-base streak to 18 games, dating back to July 11. It’s the second-longest streak by a Red Sox player this season, trailing only Willson Contreras’ 19-game run in May.

Chicago went back ahead in the 11th when Garrett Whitlock's wild pitch moved automatic runner Miguel Vargas to third, allowing him to score on Colson Montgomery's sacrifice fly.

Down a run, it never felt like the Red Sox were down for the count and once again, they responded.

Abreu drove a sacrifice fly to center to tie it at 10. Boston then loaded the bases with one out and had an opportunity to finally end it, but Monasterio popped out and Jarren Duran flied out.

The White Sox scored for the third consecutive extra inning in the 12th, but Duran prevented further damage by throwing a runner out at the plate. That proved enormous when Jake Rogers, acquired from Baltimore in the Adley Rutschman blockbuster Monday, delivered a game-tying sacrifice fly in the bottom half.

Then Bello put up a much needed zero, and Durbin finally sent everyone home.

“You guys can ask me questions about the game," Chad Tracy said after the game. "I don’t know if I’ll quite remember what inning certain things happened. It was unbelievable. They just did not want to lose, so it was incredible.”

Ranger Suarez struggled through a 42-pitch third inning as Chicago scored four times, highlighted by Meidroth's 409-foot homer. Suarez lasted only three innings, allowing four runs, three earned, on three hits and two walks while striking out three.

After Meidroth's first two-run blast that sailed over the Green Monster, the Sox began to dig out from the four-run deficit.

Wong launched a two-run homer in the bottom of the third before the Red Sox erased a 5-2 deficit with three runs in the fourth. Durbin went first-to-third on Masataka Yoshida's deflected single, Monasterio followed with an RBI double and Seigler tied the game with a two-run double.

Wong’s third-inning homer marked the 100th extra-base hit of his career and his first home run at Fenway Park since September 2024. Ironically, that last Fenway blast also came against the White Sox.

Chicago regained a 7-5 lead in the fifth when another former Red Sox prospect involved in the Garrett Crochet trade, Braden Montgomery, hit an infield single back to Justin Slaten. Slaten's ensuing throwing error allowed two runs to score.

Durbin doubled to begin the sixth and scored on Yoshida's double to pull Boston within 7-6, but the Red Sox stranded Yoshida at third with nobody out.

It was one of several opportunities Boston failed to capitalize on, including another threat in the seventh and Duran being thrown out trying to advance to third on a ball in the dirt in the eighth.

Every time the White Sox looked like they might finally put the game away, the Red Sox had an answer. Abreu tied it in the ninth, Seigler in the 10th, Abreu again in the 11th and Rogers in the 12th.

Durbin jammed his pinky diving into second base in the sixth inning. He got it taped, stayed in the game and, seven innings later, delivered the walk-off RBI single in the 13th inning.

“It’s Durbin. Not surprising,” Tracy said. “If he’s able to be out there and go, he’s going to go.”

The bullpen deserves plenty of credit for keeping the Red Sox within striking distance throughout the marathon.

Greg Weissert worked an eventful inning, allowing one run on two hits and a walk, but struck out three. Trade deadline addition Erik Miller followed with two scoreless frames, working around three baserunners. His seventh inning did come with an unfortunate moment when he hit Joey Bart with a pitch, fracturing the fifth metacarpal in Bart’s left hand. The injury is a brutal blow for Chicago after acquiring the catcher at the deadline.

Tyron Guerrero, Miller and Jovani Morán combined for four scoreless innings, giving the offense time to claw its way back into the game.

Those relievers set the tone through the middle innings before Chapman, Whitlock and Bello navigated the chaos late and gave the Red Sox a chance to keep answering.

White Sox right-hander Luis Castillo made his first start with the club after being acquired from the Mariners earlier in the week. He allowed five runs on six hits over four innings, walking one and striking out five.

Castillo retired the first seven batters he faced before Wong broke through with a two-run homer in the third. The veteran has now allowed at least three earned runs in four consecutive starts after holding opponents to two or fewer in seven of his previous eight outings with Seattle.

The Red Sox earned just their third walk-off victory of the season, with the other two coming against the Yankees and Tigers.

Boston is now an MLB-best 26-3 since July 3 and 31-5 since June 25, marking the best 29-game and 36-game stretches in franchise history, respectively.

Boston will try to make it nine straight Friday when they open a three-game series against the Athletics at Fenway Park. Left-hander Payton Tolle (6-6, 3.30 ERA) will start for Boston opposite right-hander Jack Perkins (2-7, 6.72 ERA).