Red Sox stun Mets with 3-2 comeback win

BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox set a franchise record last summer when they headed into last summer’s MLB All-Star break on a 10-game winning streak.

They had a chance to enter this week’s break on a nine-game winning streak, but the lowly New York Mets put a stop to that Sunday.

Scratch that.

The Mets took a 2-0 lead into the top of the ninth against a Red Sox team that entered the day 0-43 when trailing after eight innings.

Make that 1-43.

Boston stunned New York in the top of the ninth, tying the game and forcing extra innings, then taking a 3-2 lead and winning it in the 10th.

The Red Sox have won nine games in a row, the longest active streak in the majors by far. They swept all three series on this road trip (and four of their last five), are two games under .500 and enter the All-Star break tied for the third American League wild card.

Asked if Sunday went how he drew it up, Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy chuckled.

“Pitching-wise, yeah,” Tracy said.

It looked for hours like something of a "back to reality" afternoon, with the Red Sox lineup going quicker and quieter than it has in weeks. They had no answer for Zach Thornton, the left-hander brought up from Mets Triple-A to start Sunday, who took a no-hitter into the fifth inning.

The Mets starter pitched seven scoreless innings with five strikeouts and just two hits – shortstop Andruw Monasterio’s fifth-inning double and catcher Connor Wong’s leadoff single in the sixth – and two walks, on 82 pitches (56 for strikes). Thornton is just the third pitcher this year to blank Boston for at least six innings with two or fewer hits allowed, and the second to do so for at least seven innings.

And for all their offensive success this summer, the Red Sox remain 9-36 when they score fewer than four runs, and 1-40 when they trail after seven innings.

Payton Tolle and Brayan Bello combined for a strong eight innings.

Bello’s last game for the Red Sox was the June 4 debacle of a start that earned him a demotion to Triple-A Worcester. The right-hander was back in the big leagues Sunday, but in the role in which he’s seen infinitely more success this year, long relief, because unbeknownst to Tolle, the Red Sox planned for a short start.

“I get it, I understand it,” Tolle told reporters.

Tolle allowed one earned run on three hits over 3 2/3 innings, with one walk and seven strikeouts (66 pitches, 45 for strikes). The rookie southpaw enters the All-Star break with a 3.11 ERA and 1.07 WHIP over 15 games, with 87 strikeouts in 84 innings.

The Mets put together a long first inning against Tolle. Centerfielder A.J. Ewing led off with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. He came home to score on a double by shortstop Francisco Lindor, who was New York’s offensive catalyst throughout the contest. Lindor, too, advanced to third on a wild pitch, but Tolle struck out Eric Wagaman and Carson Benge back-to-back to escape further damage.

Bello took over with two outs in the fourth and immediately began dealing. He struck out catcher Luis Torrens to strand left-fielder Tyrone Taylor, whose double brought Tolle’s day to an end.

Over 4 1/3 innings Bello allowed just one earned run – Lindor’s sixth-inning homer – on three hits, walked one and struck out seven (55 pitches, 38 for strikes).

“I thought he was great,” Tracy said of Bello. “I thought he was huge.”

The Red Sox were at risk of being held to no more than two hits in a game for the first time this season when Rafaela greeted righty Devin Williams with a leadoff single in the ninth.

The game should’ve been over when Romy Gonzalez hit Williams’ first pitch into what looked like a tailor-made double play ball. Instead, he reached first, and a fielding error by Lindor allowed Rafaela to advance safely to second.

Williams opened Caleb Durbin’s at-bat with a 1-2 count. Durbin fouled off the righty’s fourth pitch, then took three balls in a row to draw a bases-loaded walk. Torrens challenged Ball 4, and lost.

Monasterio’s subsequent walk, on six pitches from Williams, forced in a run.

Jarren Duran, who has struggled immensely most of the season, but he met the moment, turning Williams’ second pitch into a shallow RBI single that tied the game.

The Red Sox had come all the way back, and were threatening more as the bases remained loaded, but pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida lined into an inning-ending double play.

Veteran closer Aroldis Chapman took the mound for a bottom of the ninth that seemed next to impossible only minutes before. Lindor popped out to Anthony Seigler at second, and Chapman worked around Jared Young’s single to right to send the game to extras.

Yoshida began the top of the 10th as the automatic runner on second, but immediately motored to third on a first-pitch sacrifice bunt by Wong, and scored the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Seigler.

Rafaela’s inning-ending flyout to Benge in right put the one-run lead in the hands of Garrett Whitlock. Taylor, the automatic runner at second, had to hold as pinch-hitter Jorge Polanco struck out swinging to begin the bottom of the 10th and third baseman Brett Baty flew out to left.

It all came down to pinch-hitter Bo Bichette, who in his many years with the Toronto Blue Jays killed the Red Sox. Whitlock’s first two pitches to Bichette were high above the zone. Bichette fouled the next two pitches off, took a way-outside Ball 3 for a full count, and fouled off Whitlock’s sixth pitch.

Whitlock’s seventh pitch to Bichette was a 95.6 mph sinker, which he grounded to Monasterio at first.

Game over. Game won.

For the second summer in a row the All-Star break comes at the time when the Red Sox are at their hottest. Can they sustain the momentum when they return to Fenway Park on Friday for a 10-game homestand against three division opponents?

“To be where we’re at right now, based on where we were at three weeks ago, you couldn’t ask for much more,” Tracy said. “Part two is we got to be ready to go when the second part of the season starts.”

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