Red Sox survive thriller, beat A's on 10th-inning Nick Sogard RBI

BOSTON — It was ugly, stressful and at times hard to watch.

But at this point in the season, the Red Sox will take a win any way they can get one.

The Red Sox survived a tractor pull of a game Wednesday night, beating the Athletics, 5-4, in 10 innings on a walk-off fielder’s choice by Nick Sogard.

The game dragged on for more than three hours and featured 14 pitchers between the clubs. Boston finally broke through after Narvaez laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the extra-innings ghost runner to third, and Nate Eaton came across to score after Sogard grounded one to the right side just softly enough to beat the throw.

Getting to that point was a challenge, and it was a grind for Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito from the start.

Unable to command his arsenal and displaying a fastball a couple of ticks slower than normal, the veteran right-hander worked around traffic all night. Giolito was mostly able to contain the damage, limiting the A’s to a Darrell Hernaiz sacrifice fly in the second and escaping a bases-loaded jam unscathed in the third, but things eventually caught up to him.

In the top of the fifth Giolito allowed a leadoff single, a walk and settled for a fielder’s choice after Tyler Soderstrom beat out a near double play. But then he walked Jacob Wilson for his fifth free pass of the game, loading the bases with one out.

Clinging to a one-run lead at the time, manager Alex Cora pulled Giolito and went to Justin Wilson to put out the fire. The Red Sox lefty promptly walked Lawrence Butler to tie the game and then allowed a two-run single by Hernaiz, who sent a hard-hit grounder up the middle that bounced off the glove of a diving Romy Gonzalez, making it 4-2 A’s.

As has been the case all month, the Red Sox had their opportunities but struggled to capitalize.

Boston took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Masataka Yoshida in the first inning, and after the A’s tied the game 1-1 on Hernaiz’s sac fly, the Red Sox jumped right back in front on a solo homer by Rob Refsnyder, who clanked one off the left-field foul pole to lead off the second for his ninth home run of the season.

After the Athletics pulled ahead with their three-run fifth, the visitors did everything they could to give the game back.

The A’s committed two costly defensive blunders in the bottom of the frame. First, Hernaiz botched what should have been a double-play ball off the bat of Trevor Story, which allowed everyone to advance safely and loaded the bases with nobody out.

Then, after Alex Bregman flew out for the first out of the inning, Yoshida sent a soft ground ball down the first base line that should have been the second. But nobody covered first, allowing Yoshida to reach safely for his second RBI single of the day and making it 4-3.

Boston couldn’t continue the rally and let the opportunity pass by the wayside.

The Red Sox had another chance for a big inning in the sixth, and Story made sure it didn’t go completely to waste after he followed Nathaniel Lowe and Jarren Duran’s singles with a well-placed knock up the middle to tie the game at 4-4.

Story went on to steal second, making him a perfect 31 for 31 on stolen bases this season, but Bregman ripped a hard line drive directly at the left fielder to end the inning, stranding two in scoring position.

The Red Sox left the tying run at third again in the seventh as well, and at that point the club was 3 for 14 with runners in scoring position with 10 men left on base.

Story attempted to give the club another chance after reaching base safely for the fifth time with a two-out single in the eighth, but he was caught stealing for the first time this year to end the inning.

Fortunately for Boston, the bullpen did its job and kept the Athletics at bay from the sixth inning onwards. Justin Slaten, Steven Matz, Garrett Whitlock, Aroldis Chapman, Zack Kelly and Chris Murphy combined for 5 1/3 scoreless innings, though Chapman had to survive a difficult top of the ninth in which he allowed two singles and put men at the corners with two outs.

Chapman got Butler to fly out to end the inning, but the game went to extra innings when the Red Sox stranded the game-winning run at second in the bottom of the ninth.

Kelly and Murphy stepped up when their number was called, combining for a scoreless 10th to keep it a 4-4 game and setting the stage for Sogard’s walk-off heroics.

Giolito’s big milestone

By completing at least four innings on Wednesday Giolito officially reached 140 innings on the season, which means the $14 million team option the Red Sox held for 2026 will become a $19 million mutual option.

As a result Giolito will now have the ability to hit the free-agent marketplace this winter if he chooses.

Mutual options are rarely exercised by both club and player, and Giolito will have a strong incentive to seek a multi-year deal.

The right-hander is still only 31 years old and has put together a strong bounce-back season after missing all of 2024 due to elbow surgery and enduring a chaotic 2023. With his performance against the A’s, Giolito now has a 3.46 ERA and 118 strikeouts over 140 1/3 innings on the season.

Giolito would almost certainly command more than a one-year, $19 million deal, and after having to settle for what amounted to a two-year, $38.5 million contract in his first free-agent foray, it would be sensible for the veteran to seek some long-term security.

Whitlock’s dominance continues

While Chapman has tended to garner the majority of the headlines this season, Whitlock has quietly established himself as a late-game force as well.

Coming off a season lost to elbow surgery, Whitlock has dominated as Boston’s eighth-inning man. The right-hander recorded four outs Wednesday on only 15 pitches, bringing his ERA for the season down to 2.35 with 85 strikeouts over 69 innings.

Since June 29 he’s been even better. Over his last 30 appearances since then he’s allowed just two earned runs over 29 innings, good for an ERA of 0.62.

Playoff update

With the Cleveland Guardians’ 4-0 win over the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday, the Red Sox retain a 2.5 game lead for the last American League playoff spot. Their magic number is now 7.5, which is the combined number of Red Sox wins and Guardians losses needed to clinch a playoff berth with 10 games to play.