Red Sox run win streak at 14 with 6-5 win over Orioles on Caleb Durbin’s solo home in the eighth
Anthony Seigler, basking in his emergence from the fringes of the depth chart to become the Red Sox’ everyday second baseman and leadoff hitter, made what may well have been an accidental grand declaration Monday afternoon.
The Sox were set to host the Orioles, winners of seven consecutive games, the second-longest win streak in the majors behind only, of course, the Red Sox. Seigler had taken note.
“I saw they’re on a good streak, and that’s all good and all,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “But they haven’t played us yet, especially with the streak that we’re on and how we’re feeling.”
And so it went in the series opener at Fenway Park. The Red Sox beat Baltimore, 6-5, in a back-and-forth thriller for their 14th win in a row — one away from the franchise record, set in 1946.
The final blow was Caleb Durbin’s home run off Tyler Wells in the eighth inning. With two outs and the bases empty, Durbin launched a no-doubter to left field.
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As the announced crowd of 37,659 exploded, so too did the dugout. Seigler joined Willson Contreras, Andruw Monasterio, and Carlos Narváez in leaping onto the field before the ball had even landed in the Green Monster seats.
Aroldis Chapman stranded runners at second and third base, getting Tyler O’Neill to line out to shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng for the final out. It was his 389th career save, one shy of tying Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley — who was in attendance Monday — for ninth on the all-time list.
Willson Contreras had three hits, including an RBI double to tie the game in the sixth.Christian Kantosky for The Boston Globe
Lefthander Payton Tolle and Orioles righty Shane Baz pitched to similar fates.
Tolle lasted 5⅔ innings, giving up four runs and eight hits — including a quartet of singles in the sixth before he was pulled. He struck out nine and walked one.
Baz finished six innings and yielded four runs, just two of them earned. He struck out six and walked none.
Baltimore struck first, with back-to-back two-out doubles in the opening inning. A pitch after Gunnar Henderson sneaked a double down the left-field line, O’Neill sent a line drive down the right-field line. It took on hop over the side wall for an automatic double.
The Red Sox got the run back in the second, after Contreras and Masataka Yoshida opened the inning with singles. Contreras advanced to third on Durbin’s fly out and scored on Jarren Duran’s sacrifice fly.
In the third, the Sox jumped ahead by deploying one of their best strategies amid this hot streak: Wait for the other team to crumble defensively, then take advantage.
The Orioles made misplays on three consecutive batted balls, allowing the Red Sox to plate two runs.
With two outs, second baseman Jeremiah Jackson threw away Ceddanne Rafaela’s ground ball, extending an inning that should have been over. When Wilyer Abreu doubled to left-center, bringing in Rafaela, shortstop Henderson threw the ball well wide of home, allowing Abreu to move to third. Then Contreras lined what was ruled a single off the wrist of a leaping Henderson for another run.
That lead, too, proved temporary. Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered over the Green Monster in the fifth to move the Orioles to within a run.
In the sixth, Tolle allowed four singles — three of them ground balls, three of them with two outs. Jackson and Encarnacion-Strand each drove in a run for a 4-3 lead.
The Sox tied the game in the bottom half of the inning on Contreras’s double, but the Orioles went back ahead in the top of the seventh — off Tyron Guerrero, who allowed a run for the first time since June 13. But the Sox rallied again in the next half-inning. Rafaela’s two-out single bringing in Tsung-Che Cheng, setting up the last of the dramatic turns.
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
