Mickey Gasper homers again, but Red Sox fall in extras to DBacks

Mickey Gasper did it again. 

Before this week, Gasper had never homered in a Red Sox uniform. Three days later, he has three of them.

His latest was the biggest yet, a towering three-run shot in the sixth inning that erased a three-run deficit and pulled the Red Sox even with the Diamondbacks. But after Gasper breathed life back into Fenway Park, Boston couldn’t finish the comeback.

The Red Sox squandered a bases-loaded opportunity in the seventh before Jovani Morán struggled with his command in extra innings, allowing Arizona to score twice in the 10th and escape with a 7-6 win Wednesday afternoon.

Boston settled for two of three against the Diamondbacks and fell to 68-59 overall and 31-32 at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox had their chances to win this one on Wednesday afternoon.

After Gasper tied the game at 5-5, Boston loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh. Arizona turned to Connecticut native Brandyn Garcia, who walked Wilyer Abreu before striking out Willson Contreras to escape the jam.

Erik Miller, Tyron Guerrero and Aroldis Chapman combined for three scoreless innings to get the game to extras, but with Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten on the injured list and Boston’s top available leverage arms already used, interim manager Chad Tracy turned to Morán in the 10th.

Arizona immediately went to small ball with Geraldo Perdomo bunting the automatic runner Gabriel Moreno to third before Nolan Arenado dropped a 145-foot single into shallow left. Andruw Monasterio retreated from shortstop but couldn’t get to it, allowing Moreno to score the go-ahead run.

Then Morán lost the strike zone, issuing three consecutive walks, the last forcing home another run and giving Arizona a 7-5 lead. Morán finally stopped the bleeding by getting Ryan Waldschmidt to ground into a double play, but the extra insurance run proved costly.

Boston got automatic runner Ceddanne Rafaela home in the bottom of the 10th. Abreu’s groundout moved Rafaela to third, and Contreras brought him home with another groundout, but Caleb Durbin popped out to first to end it.

Long before extras, the conditions at Fenway appeared ripe for a big offensive afternoon.

Nick Sogard needed only one pitch to hit the first home run of his major league career, lifting a 385-foot shot to right to give Boston a 1-0 lead in the first.

It took Sogard 322 career plate appearances to finally get one over the fence.

Sogard made a little Red Sox history with his first career home run.

He became the first Red Sox player to hit his first career home run leading off the first inning since Rafaela on Sept. 12, 2023, against the Yankees. David Murphy also accomplished the feat against New York on Sept. 17, 2006.

Sogard’s homer came on a 0-0 count, putting him in even rarer company. Sogard and Rafaela are the only Red Sox players since at least 1914 to hit their first career homer leading off the first inning on the first pitch.

Jarren Duran followed with another high fly ball in the third that kept carrying until it landed in the bullpen. His 388-foot solo shot was his 17th homer of the season and extended Boston’s lead to 2-0.

Payton Tolle initially looked like he might make those two runs hold up.

The rookie left-hander worked out of trouble in the third after Jose Fernandez doubled and Waldschmidt singled to put runners at the corners with nobody out.

Durbin helped him escape when the third baseman ranged to his left on Ildemaro Vargas’ 99.8 mph grounder and fired home to cut down Fernandez. Tolle then struck out the next two hitters, with Connor Wong recovering a strike-three curveball that got away from him and throwing to first to complete the final out.

Arizona eventually broke through in the fifth after Fernandez doubled for the second time before Waldschmidt drove him home with a double that Duran nearly hauled in with a diving attempt and then after Corbin Carroll walked, Moreno ripped a two-run double to give the Diamondbacks a 3-2 lead.

Tolle finished after five innings, his shortest start since