Tyler O’Neill hit a walk-off bloop single into shallow left field to score Jarren Duran in the bottom of the ninth inning as the host Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago Cubs 5-4 on Sunday night.
Duran drew a leadoff walk in the ninth and advanced to third on Rafael Devers’ single to left before scoring the winning run.
Red Sox starter Tanner Houck gave up one run on four hits and no walks in 6 2/3 innings. He finished with nine strikeouts but settled for the no-decision.
The Cubs rallied to tie the score off Boston reliever Chris Martin, who gave up two singles to lead off the eighth. Mike Tauchman followed with a three-run home run, his third of the season, to knot it at 4-4.
Connor Wong had two hits and two RBIs for Boston. Duran recorded a two-run triple.
Kenley Jansen (1-0) worked a 1-2-3 ninth to earn the win for Boston, which won the final two games of the three-game series.
Tauchman was 2-for-4 and Mark Leiter Jr. (0-1) took the loss for the Cubs.
With the Cubs trailing 4-0 in the seventh inning, Michael Busch was hit by a pitch with two outs. Dansby Swanson reached on an infield single, and Matt Mervis drove in Busch with a single to right.
In the eighth, Pete Crow-Armstrong and Nico Hoerner started the rally with back-to-back singles before Tauchman hit a three-run homer into the center field seats.
Wong opened Boston’s scoring on a two-out RBI single up the middle in the first inning.
In the third, Devers lined a leadoff single to right and scored from third on Wong’s infield single.
Houck did not allow a hit until Tauchman and Ian Happ recorded back-to-back singles with one out in the fourth. Houck then struck out Christopher Morel and got Busch to line out.
Duran increased Boston’s lead to 4-0 in the sixth, ripping a two-out, two-run triple into center field.
–Field Level Media
