Trevor Story's walk-off single lifts Red Sox past Marlins

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Aug 15, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Friday Night Smackdown may have been going down across town at the TD Garden, but Friday Night Fenway is becoming a must-see event itself.

For the fourth time in the past two months the Red Sox took the field at Fenway Park on a Friday night wearing their new green City Connect uniforms and won in thrilling walk-off fashion, this time taking down the Miami Marlins 2-1 on Trevor Story’s walk-off single.

The game also featured a high-level pitchers’ duel between Lucas Giolito and former National League Cy Young Award winner Sandy Alcantara, and it marked the club’s 12th consecutive sellout dating back to before the All-Star break.

Those other three walk-offs? The epic June 13 extra-innings thriller against the New York Yankees, Ceddanne Rafaela’s walk-off homer to beat the Tampa Bay Rays on July 11 and Roman Anthony’s first career walk-off to beat the Houston Astros on Aug. 1.

Friday night can go right to the top of the list with those as one of this team’s best wins of the season.

While Alcantara hasn’t had a good season — he entered the weekend with a 6-11 record and a 6.55 ERA — the 2022 NL Cy Young Award winner rediscovered his old dominance in a big way.

Alcantara was unhittable through the first four innings, sending down the first 12 Red Sox batters he faced to go into the fifth inning with a perfect game intact. The Marlins righty’s bid for history ended when Trevor Story lined a single to right for the game’s first hit, denying Alcantara the chance to become the first pitcher to ever throw a perfect game at Fenway Park, and the 15th to throw a no-hitter in the ballpark’s century-plus history.

Story subsequently stole second to get into scoring position, and in the process he improved to 21 for 21 on the season, which is the longest streak of successful stolen base attempts by a Red Sox player since 1920, when caught stealing was first recorded in the American League.

But the Red Sox couldn’t get him home. Wilyer Abreu and Romy Gonzalez each struck out and Abraham Toro ripped a line drive that was caught by Marlins third baseman Graham Pauley, who made an incredible leaping grab to snare the ball and strand Story at second.

While Alcantara was dealing, Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito did everything he could to keep the Marlins at bay.

Though Giolito gave up a ton of hard contact, he was able to keep the ball in the park and limited Miami to just one run over 6 1/3 innings. Five of the seven hits he allowed were doubles, but for the most part he was able to spread those out across his outing.

The lone exception came in the top of the third, when Xavier Edwards and Kyle Stowers hit back-to-back doubles to give the Marlins a 1-0 lead.

One of the biggest at bats of the game for Boston came when Ceddanne Rafaela led off the bottom of the sixth with a 10-pitch at bat, driving up Alcantara’s pitch count after he entered the inning with just 56 through five.

Rafaela ultimately struck out, but the lengthy at bat served to disrupt Alcantara’s rhythm, and the Red Sox took advantage soon after when Roman Anthony worked a two-out walk and scored from first on an RBI double by Alex Bregman, tying the game at 1-1.

Alcantara drew a flyout to end the inning and his outing, finishing with one run allowed over six innings on two hits, a walk and seven strikeouts.

The Marlins threatened one more time in the eighth after Liam Hicks and Otto Lopez were able to string together consecutive two-out singles, but Garrett Whitlock forced a flyout to left to end the threat. Aroldis Chapman took the ball from there and posted a scoreless frame, sending the game to the bottom of the ninth still tied.

Once there Marlins lefty Josh Simpson put his team in a huge hole, walking Roman Anthony and Alex Bregman and hitting Jarren Duran to load the bases with no outs. Righty Calvin Faucher was summoned to try and pull the mother of all escapes, but Story knocked one through the right side to send the fans home happy.

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