Romy Gonzalez ripped a walk-off single just inside the first-base line in the bottom of the 12th inning as the Boston Red Sox earned a 5-4 win over the visiting Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday.
Before scoring single runs in the 11th and 12th innings, the Red Sox had been held scoreless since Ceddanne Rafaela’s solo home run in the fifth.
Dominic Smith first put Boston ahead with a two-run double in the fourth.
Rafaela’s throwing error from shortstop on Isaac Paredes’ fielder’s choice scored Randy Arozarena to put Tampa Bay ahead 4-3 in the 11th. The Red Sox answered in the bottom of the inning as Rob Refsnyder’s grounder back to Rays right-hander Manuel Rodriguez (0-1), who was unable to turn an inning-ending double play, scored David Hamilton with Boston’s tying run.
The Red Sox then won it in the 12th after reliever Brennan Bernardino (2-1) caught Rays catcher Ben Rortvedt looking at strike three, stranding runners on the corners. Wong then scored the clinching run for Boston.
Josh Lowe, Paredes and Amed Rosario each had two hits for Tampa Bay. Arozarena hit his eighth homer of the year and Lowe added his first long ball of the season in the loss.
After Tampa Bay tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth, strong relief pitching limited each team to just a single hit until the game reached extras.
Zack Kelly worked an impressive 10th, stranding the automatic runner at third with an inning-ending strikeout of Harold Ramirez. In the bottom half, Tampa Bay reliever Jason Adams turned a Vaughn Grissom liner into a double play to get through the frame.
The Rays struck first in the first inning for the second straight night, staking Aaron Civale to a 1-0 lead when Lowe took Nick Pivetta deep to right-center field for a two-out solo home run.
Civale allowed only Rafael Devers’ single through the first three innings, but the Red Sox tagged him for two runs in the fourth. Smith drove in two with a double to center.
Rafaela upped Boston’s lead to 3-1 in the fifth, taking a one-out pitch deep down the left-field line for a solo homer. It was Rafaela’s fourth of the year
After Arozarena homered to left-center to end Pivetta’s outing, Justin Slaten came out of the Boston bullpen and allowed a Lowe double to center and then Paredes dumped a single into shallow right to make it 3-3.
Aside from the homers, Pivetta allowed just two other hits and struck out eight in 5 2/3 innings.
A product of nearby Northeastern University, Civale finished the first Fenway Park start of his MLB career with six strikeouts and three runs allowed on five hits across the first five innings.
–Field Level Media
