BOSTON – It’s gone from incredible to insane.
The Red Sox rallied for their eighth straight victory, pulling it out in the 13th inning on Caleb Durbin’s RBI single for a 12-11 win over the White Sox on Thursday night at steamy Fenway Park.
It was the team’s second straight sweep, as Boston moved to 26-3 since July 3 and 31-5 since June 25. The Red Sox are just the fourth team to go 26-3 or better in a 29-game span within a season in the past 70 years, and the first since Cleveland in 2017.
This one will certainly go down in Red Sox annals as one of the wackiest. They rallied to tie it in the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th before Durbin’s single up the middle sent automatic runner Nick Sogard sliding into the plate safely, setting off a raucous celebration. The Sox became the first team in MLB's modern era to score in five separate innings in the ninth or later in the same game.
The improbable run against some of MLB’s best teams continues.
It started in early July, when the Red Sox took three from the AL Central-leading White Sox in Chicago. Then they opened the second half with a four-game sweep over the AL East leaders, Tampa Bay, before heading out west and sweeping three in Los Angeles last weekend against the Dodgers. Interim manager Chad Tracy’s bunch capped it off with a memorable victory in front of 37,082.
In the 11th, Wilyer Abreu’s sacrifice fly tied it.
They had tied it 7-7 in the ninth on Abreu’s two-out RBI single.
They fell in a 4-0 hole early, rallied to tie it at 5. Then, they were behind 9-7 in the 10th, but retied in on Anthony Seigler’s sacrifice fly before leaving the bases loaded on Sogard’s inning-ending fielder’s choice.
It just set the stage for more drama and another crazy Fenway victory that highlighted why this team is doing what it’s doing: they certainly don’t quit.