Red Sox blow late lead to Athletics, drop first series since early July

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Aug 9, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — You might not know it from watching the Boston Red Sox these past few weeks, but even the best big league teams lose from time to time.

Entering the weekend, the Red Sox welcomed to Fenway Park an Athletics team that had been just as bad over the past month or so as the Red Sox have been good. On paper it seemed like as big a layup as the Red Sox could have on their schedule, and yet after winning Friday’s opener the club stumbled and allowed the Athletics to bounce back and hand Boston its first series defeat since the beginning of July.

The club’s usually lights out bullpen faltered late, with Garrett Whitlock allowing the A’s to tie the game in the eighth and Aroldis Chapman giving up the go-ahead RBI double to Max Muncy in Sunday's eventual 4-3 loss.

The Athletics took an early 1-0 lead after Red Sox opener Erik Miller allowed back-to-back singles and then a run-scoring groundout by Tyler Soderstrom. The recently acquired left-hander limited the damage from there, and the Red Sox tied the game with an RBI single by Eli White in the bottom of the second.

The A’s jumped in front again in the fourth when Soderstrom led off with a triple and scored on a groundout by Tommy White, but once again the Red Sox answered in the bottom of the fifth when White reached on an infield single, Jake Rogers shot a base hit through the left side and Nick Sogard dropped down a sacrifice bunt that A’s pitcher J.T. Ginn threw away trying to get White at the plate.

That tied the game, and a few batters later Wilyer Abreu hit a sky high fly ball to right for the go-ahead sacrifice fly.

For a while afterwards the Red Sox bullpen took care of business.

Brayan Bello followed Miller and allowed one run over four strong innings, giving up three hits and no walks with four strikeouts. Tyron Guerrero followed with a perfect sixth inning, Jovani Moran threw a spotless seventh and Garrett Whitlock was one strike away from a scoreless eighth.

That’s when things started getting hairy.

Whitlock had previously allowed a leadoff single to Jeff McNeil, and with two outs in the inning Jonah Heim drove him in to tie the game with an RBI double. It was just the second time Whitlock has allowed an earned run in his last 20 appearances dating back to June 25.

The Red Sox escaped the inning with the score still tied, but after getting two quick outs in the top of the ninth Aroldis Chapman allowed a single, a stolen base and then the go-ahead RBI double by Muncy. The A’s went into the bottom of the ninth leading 4-3.

Jahmai Jones pinch hit for Duran and led off the bottom of the ninth with a single, Eli White struck out, Caleb Durbin pinch hit for Rogers and won an ABS challenge to draw a walk. That brought up Nick Sogard, who hit a grounder that nearly ate up Muncy at third base, but the A’s infielder recovered to tag the third base bag for the second out.

Needing just a base hit to tie the game, Rafaela stepped up and for a moment looked like he might have a shot. But his hard line drive to left field found its way into the outfielder’s glove, ending the club’s streak of consecutive series victories at nine.

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