Boston’s winning streak stops at 9 when another late Red Sox rally runs out of gas

Boston’s winning streak stops at 9 when another late Red Sox rally runs out of gas

Economy World


The (latest) Boston Red Sox winning streak stops at nine.

On Saturday, the Athletics played the spoiler at Fenway Park, raining on what has at times seemed like a summerlong parade in Boston. Their 7-3 win over the Red Sox denied Boston its second double-digit winning streak of the season.

The Red Sox tried to muster some late magic, which has become a bit of a hallmark of this wild, never-say-die Boston season. They put runners on second and third with two outs in the eighth, but the push ended when Jarren Duran struck out. Then, in the ninth, Boston strung together three hits and a walk, but Eli White lined out to center field to end the game.

“I think that’s our identity, I think that’s who we are as a team,” Jahmai Jones said, “is, you know, it’s the ninth inning. We’ve seen a lot of comebacks for us, we’ve seen a lot of late-inning rallies. We’re never going to give up until game’s over.”

Did interim manager Chad Tracy have hope? Yep, he sure did.

“It was a great effort to get the tying run to the plate and give ourselves a shot,” Tracy said afterward. “It was awesome. … That ball was smoked by Eli, and if you get another one on there you’ve got the winning run at the plate, so it was a good effort.”

Boston out jumped to an early 2-0 lead Saturday when Andruw Monasterio’s single in the first drove in Jones and Caleb Durbin. Left-hander Gage Jump kept the Red Sox at bay for the remainder of his six-inning, 11-strikeout effort.

The Red Sox had cruised to a 13-1 win on Friday night, rolling to that victory one night after rallying five times against the White Sox in a 13-inning marathon.

Even with Saturday’s loss, the Red Sox (64-52) have won 11 of their past 13. They are 32-6 since June 25 — a run that also included a franchise-record 15-game winning streak in July.