Red Sox pull off Patriots' Day win vs. Tigers despite Sonny Gray's early exit

Gabrielle Starr, Boston Herald on Apr 20, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Boston Marathon weekend is always the most grueling of the Red Sox season: a night game Friday, afternoon games Saturday and Sunday, and the annual 11:10 a.m. Patriots’ Day game on Monday.

Between the schedule, and back-to-back short starts by Brayan Bello and Garrett Crochet in the second and third games of this Detroit Tigers quartet, Red Sox relievers could’ve used a restful series finale.

And Fenway Park, celebrating its 114th birthday, and the 13th anniversary of David Ortiz’s iconic “This is our (expletive) city” speech after the Marathon bombing, deserved a win by the home team.

Things looked dire early on, when Sox starter Sonny Gray exited after just 2 2/3 innings and 40 pitches with right hamstring tightness and it became a bullpen game.

But seven relievers combined for the remaining 6 1/3 frames, the bats worked some pinch-hit magic, and wearing their special jerseys with “Boston” across the chest, the Red Sox pulled off an 8-6 win to split the series.

Danny Coulombe worked around the two baserunners Gray left behind by getting Tigers first baseman Colt Keith to ground out. Zack Kelly followed with 1 2/3 scoreless innings.

Jovani Moran, whose three scoreless innings on Saturday were a new personal best, wasn’t able to record an out in the sixth. After back-to-back walks and a go-ahead RBI single by Kerry Carpenter, manager Alex Cora went to Greg Weissert, who struck out the next three batters to avoid further damage.

Garrett Whitlock pitched a perfect seventh inning, and rookie Ryan Watson lasted 1 1/3 innings before giving up the first Tigers run since the sixth, an RBI single by Gleyber Torres, which prompted Cora to call upon his closer.

The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the second, their first lead since the 10th inning of Friday’s series opener, which they won 1-0 on a Masataka Yoshida pinch-hit RBI single.

From the first inning, they had no trouble putting man on base against Detroit starter Jack Flaherty, who allowed two unearned runs on three hits and struck out three in 3 1/3 innings. But as has been the case in nearly every game this season, the Red Sox spent several innings struggling to convert runners into runs. The six walks they received from Flaherty alone were their most in a game since April 8, they were 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and had left eight men on base in the first four innings.

Yet there were promising signs of life throughout. The Red Sox tallied 12 hits and only struck out seven times. Roman Anthony drew three of Boston’s eight walks, tied for their season high. Caleb Durbin, who doubled off the Green Monster for the second consecutive game, Masataka Yoshida, and Carlos Narváez, contributed two hits apiece.

Narváez responded to Weissert’s lockdown efforts with a one-out double and stolen base in the bottom of the sixth, which positioned him to tie the game moments later, when Anthony’s ball found the grass just beyond the middle of the diamond for an RBI single.

And in the bottom of the seventh, Yoshida led off with a single, Trevor Story walked, Ceddanne Rafaela, pinch hitting for Marcelo Mayer, lined a ball past the outstretched glove arm of first baseman Keith, but far inside the right-field line for a two-run single. Narváez, batting for the second consecutive inning, found himself safe on first with an RBI single when Keith missed the throw from third.

Detroit plated three runs against Watson and Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, but it mattered not, because Boston had fortuitously batted around in the eighth: a one-out single by Yoshida and double by Story turned into two runs, when Isiah Kiner-Falefa lined a single to right.