Sonny Gray shuts down Orioles, Red Sox clinch series with 3rd straight win

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 5, 2026

Published in Baseball

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The Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles played eight straight innings without either team scoring a run Friday. Mickey Gasper’s solo homer in the first was all the offense mounted by either side, so heading into Saturday night surely the two clubs would scratch at least a few runs across, right?

Eventually, yes, but it took a while.

For the second straight night the Red Sox and Orioles found themselves locked in a pitcher’s duel, with Sonny Gray and Chris Bassitt carrying a scoreless game into the sixth inning. But the Red Sox bats finally got going late, powering Boston to a 5-0 win to clinch the series victory.

Eli White put the Red Sox ahead with a two-run single off Bassitt in the top of the sixth, Isiah Kiner-Falefa added a two-run double in the seventh to blow the game open, and Gray threw seven shutout innings to pick up his 17th win of the season.

“Shout out to Ranger (Suarez) yesterday, shout out to Sonny today, this is what it’s going to take to win it all,” Kiner-Falefa told NESN’s Jahmai Webster postgame. “Our starting pitcher’s going to have to go out there and do the job and we’re going to have to play D and it doesn’t matter if we win by one or 10, we just got to win.”

The Red Sox had an opportunity to break their scoreless streak early and take a quick first-inning lead, loading the bases on two walks and a single before Bassitt forced Kiner-Falefa into an inning-ending groundout.

Gray, who was pitching on extra rest after having his start pushed back four days, worked out of a two-on, two-out jam in the first as well. From that point both starters were off to the races.

The closest the Orioles came to scoring against Gray came in the third after Colton Cowser reached on a leadoff double, advanced to third on a lineout and tried to score on a grounder to third by Blaze Alexander. But Nick Sogard’s throw home was in time, nailing Cowser at the plate, and the Orioles didn’t get another runner into scoring position for the rest of Gray’s outing.

Gray finished with three hits allowed over seven scoreless innings. He struck out seven, walked three and lowered his ERA on the season to 2.69.

“The layoff helped him, he looked good, pitched deep, he was awesome,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters in Baltimore. “Second night in a row we’ve gotten a starter out there and threw seven innings.”

The Red Sox finally broke through against Bassitt in the top of the sixth.

The 37-year-old veteran, who is in his 12th MLB season but entered Saturday with a 4.97 ERA, gave up a pair of one-out singles and walked Jarren Duran to load the bases with two outs. Orioles manager Craig Albernaz came to the mound but opted to leave the veteran in the game, and he promptly gave up a two-run single to Eli White to break the tie.

It was the first time either team had scored since Gasper’s first-inning home run on Friday, breaking a streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings.

“It seemed like if we could keep our guys in the game, keep us with a chance it’s only a matter of time before we put something together,” Gray said.

Connor Wong extended the Red Sox lead with an RBI single off reliever Rico Garcia, closing the book on Bassitt’s day. He wound up being charged with three runs over 5 2/3 innings on five hits, four walks and six strikeouts.

The Red Sox scored twice more in the seventh to take full control of the game. Gasper walked, Trevor Story hit a single and both scored when Kiner-Falefa hit a double into the right-field corner.

“I’ve been in the situation before so just going back to the experience, swing is still coming around so just trying to get the job done,” Kiner-Falefa said.

Things got interesting in the eighth when the Orioles loaded the bases for Pete Alonso, but Greg Weissert struck the Baltimore slugger out to end the inning and preserve the shutout.

Wyatt Olds finished things off with a scoreless bottom of the ninth to close out Boston’s second consecutive shutout win, and its 16th of the season.

The Red Sox (78-65) have now won three straight to clinch the series while also extending Baltimore’s losing streak to five games. Boston is six games up on the Toronto Blue Jays for the second wild-card spot, and Sunday Payton Tolle will take the mound as the Red Sox look to complete the sweep.

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