For a moment, Adam Duvall could barely stand.
The Red Sox slugger had just fouled a 99 mph sinker right off the top of his foot and needed a solid minute to gather himself. It wasn’t clear if Duvall would be able to continue, but with two men on and the game tied in the top of the 10th the outfielder stepped back into the box and pulled the next pitch he saw 371 feet for the go-ahead three-run home run.
Josh Winckowski closed things out for the 7-5 win over the Houston Astros, and though time will tell, it felt in the moment like Duvall may have saved the Red Sox season.
“Honestly I don’t know how I hit it after what I did,” Duvall told NESN’s Jahmai Webster afterwards.
Coming in the Red Sox had already squandered two games in the Wild Card since arriving in Houston and were facing the prospect of another devastating setback. Worse, closer Kenley Jansen left due to right hamstring tightness after recording one out in the bottom of the ninth, and if he’s lost for any length of time it could prove catastrophic for the club’s slim playoff hopes.
His status will loom large over the club going forward either way, but with Seattle’s loss earlier Wednesday the Red Sox were at least able to regain some ground in the Wild Card and now stand four games below the playoff cutline.
Getting to that point proved quite the adventure.
Hoping Chris Sale could be their stopper, the Red Sox didn’t quite get the big lefty’s best. Sale allowed four runs over five innings, including in each of the first three frames to put Boston on the defensive right out of the chute.
Sale gave up a leadoff double to Jose Altuve on the first pitch of the game and eventually allowed him to score on a Kyle Tucker sacrifice fly. Nine-hitter Martin Maldonado later tagged him for a two-run home run with two outs in the second inning to make it 3-0, and after the Red Sox got two back in the third Sale again gave the Astros some breathing room, with Jose Abreu knocking an RBI double in the bottom of the frame to make it 4-2.
Despite those mistakes, there was also a lot to like about Sale’s performance.
The lefty had no trouble getting the Astros to whiff, drawing 19 swing and misses over five innings and recording nine strikeouts. He also leaned heavily on his slider, which accounted for 44 of his 80 total pitches, and though his fastball averaged 93.9 mph, he dialed it up to 96 to punch out Kyle Tucker on a particularly nasty four-seamer up and inside.
All told, Sale allowed the four runs on six hits with one walk along with the nine punchouts and the two-run home run.
Sale certainly was better than his Houston counterpart Jose Urquidy, who labored through 4.2 innings and was flirting with disaster for much of his outing. Urquidy allowed eight hits and three walks, but it wasn’t until the fifth inning before the Red Sox finally capitalized on all their traffic and tie the game.
The Red Sox initially got on the board with two runs in the third on an Alex Verdugo RBI double and a Triston Casas RBI single. Adam Duvall subsequently walked to load the bases, but Trevor Story struck out to end the threat.
Boston stranded two more in the fourth, but in the fifth they finally broke through with two runs to tie the game. Story recorded his first RBI of the season on a run-scoring single, and then rookie Wilyer Abreu tallied his first career RBI with a grounder that scored Duvall from third.
From that point on it was the bullpens’ game.
Garrett Whitlock took over for Sale and threw two scoreless innings to keep the game tied up at 4-4. He also made an incredible sliding catch in the seventh, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt to field a foul ball after Connor Wong and Alex Bregman collided at home plate.
Ironically, Bregman was ruled out for interfering with Wong on the play, so Whitlock’s catch didn’t technically count. Still, the righty didn’t know that in the moment and still completed one of the more athletic plays you’ll ever see a pitcher make on defense.
Boston’s sloppy defense nearly came back to bite it in the eighth, however. After Chas McCormick led off the inning with a single, Chris Martin drew what should have been a double play grounder to second, but Pablo Reyes bobbled the ball. He was still able to get the out at first, but McCormick moved into scoring position and eventually to third on a Jose Abreu flyout.
He likely would have scored the go-ahead run too if not for a spectacular play at short to end the inning that Story made look routine.
While Boston’s bullpen grinded, Houston’s dominated, retiring 14 straight Red Sox batters from the fifth into the 10th. It wasn’t until Casas drew a one-out walk to join the extra-innings ghost runner that the Red Sox finally got another scoring chance, and Duvall made sure to take advantage with his towering three-run shot.
It was Duvall’s 14th home run of the season and also gave him a bomb in three straight games.
Before he even got that chance, Nick Pivetta came through with a gusty performance in the ninth. Coming on after Jansen’s injury he struck out Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker to force extras.
Winckowski worked around a lot of traffic in the 10th, allowing an RBI single by Yainer Diaz before loading the bases with one out, but he finished the job by striking out Mauricio Dubon and forcing Corey Julks to ground out to end the game.
The Red Sox live to fight another day. Now they have a chance to salvage a series split on Thursday afternoon.