BOSTON — Over the past week the Boston Red Sox pitching staff has been on an epic run, with each day’s starting pitcher seemingly turning in a better performance than the last. But Sunday night at Fenway Park Sonny Gray spun a gem that will be hard for anyone to top, carrying a no-hitter into the eighth inning.

That should have been the story of the night, but things wound up taking a couple more bizarre turns.

With the Red Sox leading 2-0 in the top of the ninth and Aroldis Chapman on the mound, the New York Yankees rallied to tie the game and force extra innings thanks in large part to a brutal defensive gaffe on what should have been a routine fly ball. The Yankees pulled ahead in the top of the 10th but the Red Sox rallied again in the bottom of the 10th to take a 5-4 win on a walk-off single by Jarren Duran.

With the 10th inning comeback the Red Sox completed their first four-game sweep since last August in Baltimore.

Like Payton Tolle and Jake Bennett before him, Gray held the Yankees hitless their first time through the order. The right-hander needed 13 or fewer pitches to retire the side in each of the first three innings.

The Red Sox didn’t fare much better early on against Carlos Rodon, but the Yankees left-hander wasn’t nearly as sharp with his command. Wilyer Abreu drew walks in each of his first two at bats, the latter of which sparked what wound up being a two-run rally.

After Abreu walked in the fourth, Willson Contreras hit a hard liner to third that Oswaldo Cabrera couldn’t handle cleanly, allowing the first baseman to reach on an error. Both runners advanced into scoring position on Romy Gonzalez’s ensuing groundout, but Caleb Durbin came through with the game’s first hit on a two-run single to center field.

Rodon walked Anthony Seigler and Connor Wong afterwards to load the bases, but the Red Sox couldn’t further capitalize when Tsung-Che Cheng struck out, keeping it a 2-0 Red Sox lead.

Rodon finished with two runs (none earned) on just one hit over five innings with four walks and six strikeouts.

Gray lost his bid for a perfect game with two outs in the fifth when he walked Rosario, but he responded by drawing a groundout to keep the no-hitter intact. He then sent the Yankees down 1-2-3 in the sixth, drawing a checked swing strike three call on Jazz Chisholm Jr. to end the inning that the Yankees second baseman didn’t appreciate.

Chisholm had to be held back from the home plate umpire by his coaches, and while manager Aaron Boone was attempting to defuse the situation, Chisholm spiked his helmet and was tossed by the first base umpire.

Despite the drama, Gray went into the seventh inning with only 74 pitches, a perfectly manageable pitch count that made a potential no-hitter fully within reach. He sent the Yankees down in order in the seventh on 17 pitches, bringing him to 91 pitches, and in the eighth he struck out Spencer Jones for the first out, which also happened to be the 2,000th strikeout of his career.

Gray is the seventh active MLB pitcher to reach 2,000 career strikeouts, joining Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale, Gerrit Cole, Yu Darvish and Kevin Gausman.

Unfortunately for Gray, that was the only history on offer Sunday night.

After breaking up the perfect game earlier, Rosario also broke up the no-no bid when he lined a one-out single up the middle. That marked the end of Gray’s night, and when interim manager Chad Tracy came out and took the ball the veteran right-hander walked back to a huge ovation, tipping his cap to the crowd before stepping into the dugout.

Tyron Guerrero finished the eighth without incident, but then the game took a decidedly ugly turn in the ninth.

Chapman allowed a leadoff single and a walk, setting in motion the events that would lead to the Yankees forcing extra innings. Abreu caught Ben Rice’s flyout to right but airmailed the throw back to the infield, and with nobody backing up the play Jose Caballero scored from second and Anthony Volpe reached third.

Once in the 10th Rosario gave New York the lead on a sinking liner to right that Abreu nearly made an impressive running grab on, but he couldn’t make the catch and the throw home wound up getting kicked away, allowing Rosario to advance to second.

Rosario moved to third on Cabrera’s sacrifice bunt and scored on a fielder’s choice by Austin Wells.

But the Red Sox weren’t finished. Seigler immediately cut the deficit in half with his leadoff RBI single to make it 4-3, and Masataka Yoshida pinch hit for Wong and put two men in scoring position with his double.

That set the stage for Cheng to tie the game on a sacrifice fly, and Duran sent the fans home happy with his walk-off knock to right field.

This weekend marked the first four-game sweep for the Red Sox since Aug. 25-28 last summer in Baltimore, and the four-game winning streak is also Boston’s longest of the season. The Red Sox (36-46) still have a lot of work to do to get back into contention, but after falling a season-low 14 games below .500 earlier this week in Colorado the club has taken an important first step.

The next step will be carrying the momentum into the next series when the Washington Nationals come to town for the first home series before the All-Star break. First pitch Monday is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET.

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