‘That was something’: Red Sox get past late blunders and sweep Yankees with Jarren Duran’s 10th-inning walk-off - The Boston Globe

Give the Red Sox this, at least: In what looks like a lost season, they have been getting creative to keep it interesting and maybe, just maybe, make you wonder. They escaped Sunday night with a 5-4 win over the Yankees — their season-best fourth in a row — after Sonny Gray took a no-hit bid into the eighth inning, Aroldis Chapman suffered a second blown save in a week in the ninth, and the Yankees jumped ahead by two runs in the 10th. At the end, Jarren Duran stood as the hero at Fenway Park, coming through with a walkoff single against Fernando Cruz to cap a three-run rally in the bottom of the 10th — and the Red Sox’ craziest game of the year. “That was wild,” Gray said. “Yeah, that was wild.” Interim manager Chad Tracy said: “Jeez, oh whiz. That was something.” The Red Sox improved to 36-46 with their first four-game win streak since August and their first four-game sweep of the Yankees since 2018. The 48-35 Yankees, meanwhile, fell one game behind the Rays for second place in the AL East. The last in a series of late-inning twists came courtesy of Duran, who had been out of the starting lineup — for a second time in five games — amid a deep slump. One at-bat prior, he had entered for Nate Eaton. After Anthony Seigler led off with an RBI single, Masataka Yoshida hustled for a big double, and Tsung-Che Cheng lofted a tying sacrifice fly to right, Duran stepped up against a five-man infield (and two-man outfield), the potential winning run on third base. Cruz left a splitter over the heart of the plate. Duran drove it to a wide-open right field. “It meant a lot,” said Duran, who is batting .200 and on Saturday appeared to verbally attack a heckling fan behind the Sox’ dugout. “I feel like I’ve let this team down a lot this year, and that moment just kind of felt like I let a little bit off my shoulders. So it was a pretty good feeling.” Tracy said: “For him to feel that moment, that was perfect.” It bailed out Chapman, who gave up two runs (one earned), and right fielder Wilyer Abreu, who committed key errors in the ninth and 10th. The first came on a deep fly out, when he overthrew second base. The ball rolled through the infield and all the way to the backstop as one runner scored from second and the eventual tying run advanced from first to third. In the extra inning, with Justin Slaten on the mound, Abreu ran in on Amed Rosario’s sinking line drive, allowing it to tick off his glove on the way to the ground for a go-ahead single. His ensuing wild throw allowed Rosario to advance to second base, setting up the Yankees’ second run. It was an uncharacteristic sequence for Abreu, the two-time defending American League Gold Glover, and for Chapman, who last week lost his streak of 29 consecutive saves. “He just overshot the throw,” Tracy said of Abreu. “It was to the right base. Keep that guy off second. The throw overshot. It is what it is. It happens. You don’t want it to happen in that moment, but it did.” And Chapman said, through an interpreter: “I felt good. Things didn’t go my way tonight, but at the end of the day we won. That is all that matters.” Chapman recovered to strike out his final two batters. That raised his career total to 1,363, tying Hoyt Wilhelm for the reliever record. For Gray, it was one of the best nights of his career. He made it through 7⅓ innings before the Yankees recorded a hit. Rosario grounded a single up the middle, cleanly, to end the shot at history. “I legitimately thought he was going to do it,” Tracy said. Gray walked one and struck out nine. He recorded the 2,000th strikeout of his career when he got Spencer Jones swinging in the eighth, out No. 22 — right before Rosario stepped up. “I knew after like four innings I was like, oh, I haven’t given up a hit,” Gray said. “But I never thought about it. I solely was just so focused on executing every pitch that I threw.” Gray (2.69 ERA) departed to a standing ovation from the Fenway crowd of an announced 34,573, doffed his cap, and stepped into the dugout. He matched Garrett Crochet’s no-hit bid of 7⅓ innings in April 2025. The last Sox pitcher to go longer was Eduardo Rodriguez, who took it 7⅔ in September 2016. Gray’s previous personal best was seven innings in April 2015. The Red Sox’ most recent no-hitter: still Jon Lester against the Royals on May 19, 2008. The first hit for either team was Caleb Durbin’s two-out, two-run single off lefthander Carlos Rodón in the fourth. For a while, Durbin’s moment looked like the big one. “There’s a long way to go,” Tracy said. “We have some momentum now, maybe the best momentum we’ve had.” Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.