Too often this season the Boston Red Sox have struggled to battle back late, and lost winnable games; they entered Wednesday night’s series finale in Kansas City 2-23 when trailing after the sixth inning.
But in the top of the seventh, Jarren Duran homered late for the second consecutive game and the Red Sox came back to win 4-3 to sweep the Royals.
“It was just a good all-around win for us,” Duran told NESN’s Jahmai Webster on the field postgame.
Connelly Early pitched into the seventh despite a first-inning solo shot by future Hall of Famer Salvador Perez and the fifth-inning two-run blast by Elias Diaz. Early is getting hit hard of late, though; he didn’t give up a single home run in his first seven big-league starts dating back to his September 2025 debut, but he’s allowed nine over his last seven starts. Wednesday marked his third multi-homer outing this year.
Early allowed three earned runs on six hits, walked one, and struck out five over 6 1/3 innings. He threw 93 pitches, 63 for strikes, and racked up 13 swing-and-misses.
Royals starter Michael Wacha was a good pitcher when he was a rookie facing the Red Sox in the 2013 World Series, and he reinvigorated his career pitching for Boston in 2022. He’s since dominated the Sox, including a 1.10 ERA over his last four starts against them (including Wednesday).
Red Sox hitters bailed Wacha out of nearly every jam they created for him. The 14-year MLB veteran held the Sox to one earned run and one unearned run on six hits, walked two and struck out eight over six innings. Wacha matched his season-high 105 pitches, 69 for strikes, and got 16 swing-and-misses.
The Red Sox went in order in the top of the first but then put Wacha in a bind. Willson Contreras led off the second with his first triple of the season and only his second three-bageger since August 2022. Contreras was the first of four consecutive Boston batters to reach to begin the inning. Ceddanne Rafaela reached on a fielding error by second baseman Nick Loftin, Nick Sogard tied the game with an RBI single, and Marcelo Mayer walked to load the bases with no outs.
Carlos Narváez’s first-pitch double play put Boston on top 2-1, but also put two outs on the board, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined out to end what moments earlier looked like a veritable threat.
The Red Sox tallied 11 hits, their season-high fourth consecutive game with at least nine knocks, drew three walks and struck out 10 times. But they stranded a pair of runners in the third, and wasted Sogard’s leadoff walk in the fourth and Rafaela’s one-out double in the sixth. In total the Red Sox were 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.
Opponents have scored first against the Red Sox 25 times this season. Wednesday marked just the fifth time the Red Sox came back to win.
“Bats kind of came to life this week, which was really nice to see,” interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters postgame.
Top right-handed Red Sox relievers Justin Slaten and Garrett Whitlock were unavailable after back-to-back appearances Monday and Tuesday, so Tracy sent fellow righty Greg Weissert out to relieve Early in the seventh. Weissert has struggled this season – he entered Wednesday’s game with a 4.86 ERA over 19 games, including two blown saves – but he held the Royals scoreless for the next 1 1/3 innings, which Tracy described as “huge” on a night when the bullpen was depleted.
Jovani Morán closed out the Royals Tuesday night, and recorded the final out of the eighth on Wednesday.
Duran’s blast on Tuesday night put the Red Sox up enough for veteran closer Aroldis Chapman to get the night off. No such luck for Chapman on Wednesday, though the Red Sox looked poised to add on when Duran led off the ninth with his first triple of the season, which extended his streak of reaching base safely multiple times to a season-high four consecutive games.
“I was getting roasted by everybody that Willson and Masa (Yoshida) both had a triple here and I didn’t, so it was just good to get that one off the books so they can’t roast me anymore,” Duran said.
Royals righty Alex Lange quickly retired Masataka Yoshida and Wilyer Abreu, though, and Duran became the final out trying to score on a ball that skipped away during Contreras’ at-bat.
It looked dicey when Starling Marte led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and advanced to second on a passed ball by Narváez, but Chapman retired three in a row after Marte to complete the sweep.
Chapman has converted his last 27 consecutive save opportunities dating back to last July 26, tied with Atlanta’s Raisel Iglesias for the longest active streak in the majors. It’s the third longest streak in franchise history since saves became an official stat in 1969, behind Koji Uehara’s 31-save streak between July 9, 2013 and June 16, 2014, and Tom Gordon’s record 54 from April 19, 1998 through May 31, 1999.
The Red Sox are 22-27, including 14-13 on the road. They’ve won four of their last five games.
After an off-day Thursday, they return to Fenway Friday to host the Minnesota Twins for the weekend. Rookie left-hander Payton Tolle will start the series opener at 7:10 p.m. ET.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.bostonherald.com ’
