Boston Erases 3-0 Hole, Survives Giants' Late Scare, 5-4
The Red Sox trailed 3-0 heading into the second inning and still won. A four-run fourth inning — built on a challenged call, two doubles, and a clutch single — was the difference on Sunday in Boston.
San Francisco came out swinging. Bryce Eldridge singled to right to score the first run, and Bericoto followed with a single to left to make it 2-0 before Boston had answered. Then, in the second, Jonah Cox crushed a 384-foot homer to left center, pushing the Giants to 3-0 and swinging Boston's win probability from 51% down to 35%. At that point, the Giants looked like they had the game firmly in hand.
What happened next is the story of the night. Nick Sogard answered Cox's blast immediately with a 415-foot shot of his own to left center — same zip code, bigger distance — cutting it to 3-1. Ceddanne Rafaela singled home a run in the third to make it 3-2, and then the fourth inning unraveled the Giants entirely. Wong doubled to left to score Sogard, though it took a Boston challenge and an overturned call to make it official at 3-3. Gasper then doubled to right to put Boston ahead 4-3, and Rafaela — who finished 3-for-4 with 2 RBI — singled to center to score Gasper and push it to 5-3. Three runs, two doubles, a reversed call, and Boston had flipped the game.
Jake Bennett did the heavy lifting on the mound, going 7.0 innings and allowing 3 earned runs on 7 hits with 6 strikeouts — a workmanlike line that looks even better given the early deficit he was pitching through. Aroldis Chapman closed it out with a clean 1.0 inning, 0 hits, 1 strikeout. The Giants did make it interesting in the seventh when Koss reached on an infield single and scored on a throwing error by right fielder Abreu to pull it to 5-4, but that's as close as San Francisco would get. The Giants' pitching staff — Sam Hentges and Trent Harris combined for 2.2 innings of scoreless work after the starter — gave their offense every chance, but the offense couldn't manufacture anything after the fourth. Boston's lineup appears to have found its rhythm at exactly the right moment, and Rafaela in particular looks like a problem for opposing pitchers right now.