The Red Sox have been an offensive powerhouse this summer, and entered Saturday leading Major League Baseball in runs, slugging percentage and OPS, and top of the American League in home runs, batting average, and on-base percentage.
Between the chilly, misty weather and the Boston bats flailing, Saturday felt more like one of their April or May home games than August: a winnable game lost on missed opportunities.
Until the bottom of the ninth, when the Red Sox again showed the baseball world they are no longer that team. Trailing 2-0, they stormed back to tie and then beat the San Francisco Giants, 3-2, on a fielder’s choice RBI by Wilyer Abreu.
And Fenway felt, and sounded like October.
Boston was behind from the very beginning, though starter Patrick Sandoval was largely in command during his 5 2/3 innings. Shortstop Willy Adames blasted a 403-foot solo homer to left-center at 109.4 mph with two outs in the top of the first. Former Triple-A Worcester catcher Andrew Knizner doubled the Giants’ run total with a leadoff home run in the top of the third.
The boos for former fan-favorite Rafael Devers carried over from the night before. They were particularly vociferous in the top of the third, when the erstwhile Red Sox slugger drew a one-out walk and catcher Adley Rutschman lost what might be the closest ABS challenge of this inaugural season trying to overturn Ball 4.
The Fenway Faithful seamlessly transferred their boos from Devers to Sandoval when the starter followed with a single for Adames and bases-loading walk to Bryce Eldridge. The crowd then flipped the switch to thunderous applause when Sandoval struck out second baseman Osleivis Basabe and got right fielder Jung Hoo Lee to ground out to first to waste the full diamond.
The round-trippers were the only damage off Sandoval, who allowed five total hits, walked two and struck out six on 93 pitches (60 strikes).
“He bent today, didn’t break,” interim manager Chad Tracy said of his starter. “He kept himself in the game, kept us in the game, and we were able to get it late.”
But the Red Sox wasted their scant scoring opportunities. Nick Sogard, who changed the game on both ends of the ball, with a diving catch to end a bases-loaded threat, and a game-tying RBI double in the bottom of the ninth, admitted postgame that something seemed off.
“I was talking with Willson (Contreras), like, I don’t know if it’s the 7:15 (Saturday night start),” Sogard recalled postgame. “It just felt like a weird day, and I think that’s … proof that on a day when the bats weren’t doing their job, the pitching, kind of per usual, does its job, and then just finding a way late to to get it done.”
Giants right-hander Blade Tidwell entered Saturday’s game with a 4.33 ERA over 11 games, including the previous three as a starter. But he looked like Cy Young in his 5 2/3 scoreless innings, during which he allowed just three hits, two walks, hit a batter, and struck out seven.
The Red Sox erased themselves from the bases almost as soon as they managed to put a man on. Mickey Gasper reached base with one out in the third because Tidwell hit him with a pitch, but was quickly tagged out by his own teammate; Sogard’s ground-ball single collided with Gasper as he ran to second.
Abreu struck out in each of his first three at-bats, matching his season-high for the first time since July 8.
Tidwell’s exit with two outs in the sixth did nothing to rouse the Boston bats. The inning ended with Giants third baseman Christian Koss making a very nonchalant catch of Willson Contreras’ lineout, and Contreras snapping his bat over his thigh and slamming his helmet down.
The boos continued for Devers, and others, throughout the night. But Red Sox relievers Greg Weissert, Jovani Moran and Wyatt Olds prevented the Giants from adding on. Olds escaped the second bases-loaded jam of the night with help from Sogard, who dove and snagged Eldridge’s low liner to end the inning.
“I think the dive might have been like, a little dramatic,” Sogard said with a modest grin.
The Fenway Faithful rose as one and turned the volume up to October levels when the bottom of the eighth began with a Gasper double to the right-field corner and Sogard walk. The sold-out crowd of 36,478 booed the Giants for removing right-hander Carson Seymour from the game, then roared when Ceddanne Rafaela greeted righty Dylan Smith with a single that loaded the bases with no outs.
But then Abreu donned the golden sombrero for just the second time in his career (Sept. 21, 2025) with his fourth strikeout, Contreras burned Boston’s last ABS challenge on a Strike 3 pitch that landed almost entirely inside the zone, and Rutschman flew out 365 feet to center.
“Obviously we want to cash those in, but at the same time, I think we kind of have a just a relentless offense,” Sogard said. “I think we’ve got our few kind of, big boppers, but then other than that, we’re just scrapping at-bats. So it feels like we’re not far from getting two, three baserunners on at at any time, at any moment. … We’re always confident that we’re going to get guys on.”
The bottom of the ninth began with one final, bountiful opportunity for Boston. Caleb Durbin led off with a walk that knocked Smith out of the game, and left-hander Sam Hentges began by plunking pinch-hitter Jahmai Jones. The Giants unsuccessfully challenged the safe call on Andruw Monasterio, who reached on a force out that erased Jones at second.
Pinch-hitting for Gasper, Eli White’s RBI single got Boston on the board at last, and Sogard banged one off the Green Monster to pull the Red Sox even with the Giants.
“That was cool,” Sogard said of his third career RBI to tie or give the team the lead in the ninth inning or later. “I’ve had a few at-bats kind of late in the game when the crowd’s going like that, and that’s probably the biggest hit I’ve had in one of those moments.”
Hentges intentionally walked Rafaela to load the bases with one out for the uncharacteristically cold Abreu. He grounded a sinker to first, where it was bobbled by Eldridge just long enough for White to beat the throw home.
The light towers began to flash, the opening bars of The Standells’ “Dirty Water” blared out of the Fenway sound system, “Red Sox Win” burst onto the video boards, and the home team swarmed the field.
But amidst the chaos, there was a crew chief review of the force play, so the Red Sox were forced to pull back their celebrations and wait.
Upon review, it was time to celebrate win No. 70 all over again.