Mickey Gasper homers again, but Red Sox lose to Diamondbacks in 10 innings

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Aug 19, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Before this week, Mickey Gasper had never hit a home run as a member of the Red Sox. Now he has three in the last three days, the latest a towering three-run shot on Wednesday that helped force extra innings.

But while Gasper helped his club seize the momentum, they couldn’t ride it over the finish line.

The Red Sox squandered several late scoring chances en route to a 7-6 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 10 innings, leaving the bases loaded in the seventh before eventually giving up the lead on an RBI single by Nolan Arenado in the top of the 10th.

With hot summer temperatures and a steady breeze blowing out to right, the ball carried all afternoon. The Red Sox took full advantage early, hitting a pair of home runs that initially looked like easy fly balls but kept flying into the bullpens.

The first was off the bat of Nick Sogard, who hit the first pitch thrown by Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt out for the first home run of his major league career. Then in the third, Jarren Duran followed suit with a similar sky-high shot that carried out to put the Red Sox ahead, 2-0.

Meanwhile, Payton Tolle cruised through the first two innings and worked his way out of a potential jam in the third to keep the Diamondbacks off the board. After Jose Fernandez led off with a double and reached third on a Ryan Waldschmidt single, Tolle drew a ground ball that Caleb Durbin threw home to erase the lead runner, and then the rookie left-hander struck out the next two batters to escape the inning.

But the Diamondbacks got to Tolle eventually.

Fernandez, a rookie infielder who was just called up this weekend after two months in Triple-A, sparked a three-run fifth inning when he ripped his second double in as many at-bats. Waldschmidt brought him home with an RBI double that Duran just barely missed making an incredible diving catch on, and after Corbin Carroll walked, Gabriel Moreno put Arizona ahead with a two-run double to deep left-center.

Tolle finished with three runs allowed over five innings with six hits, two walks and six strikeouts.

Things didn’t go any better for Greg Weissert in the sixth. The Red Sox right-hander came on and immediately allowed a sharply hit single off the Green Monster, a rocket to center that Ceddanne Rafaela had to make a great running grab on and then a two-run pinch-hit home run to Lars Nootbaar that measured at 420 feet and 110.5 mph off the bat.

With five unanswered runs, Arizona had all the momentum, until Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras came up with back-to-back one-out singles against Pfaadt in the sixth. His pitch count approaching 90, the Diamondbacks starter drew a one-pitch flyout from Durbin but left a change-up down and over the middle to Gasper.

Mickey didn’t miss.

Gasper’s game-tying blast sailed 407 feet into the right-field bleachers and according to Statcast would have been gone in all 30 MLB ballparks. That shot also chased the Diamondbacks starter, who finished with five runs allowed over 5 2/3 innings with seven hits, no walks and eight strikeouts.

The three homers were the only blemishes on what was Pfaadt being one out away from an excellent outing.

The Red Sox missed an opportunity to take the lead in the seventh, loading the bases with two outs but failing to score. Diamondbacks left-hander Brandyn Garcia, a Connecticut native who played collegiately at Quinnipiac, came on with two on and two outs, and though he started by walking Abreu he came back to strike out Contreras to keep it 5-5.

Boston’s bullpen did its part to keep it tied as well, as Erik Miller, Tyron Guerrero and Aroldis Chapman combined for three scoreless innings of relief to help send the game to extra innings.

But having used its top three leverage arms and both Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten currently on the injured list, the Red Sox’s options were limited in extras. Interim manager Chad Tracy gave the ball to left-hander Jovani Moran, who surrendered the lead on Arenado’s bloop single to left and completely lost the plate afterward, allowing three straight walks, including one with the bases loaded to make it 7-5 Arizona.

The Red Sox got one run back in the bottom of the frame, scoring the ghost runner on a groundout by Contreras, but then Durbin flew out to end the game.