And just like that, the 2019 Boston Red Sox season comes to a close and it ended in ridiculous fashion.
Eduardo Rodriguez pitched well Sunday afternoon, but wasn’t able to secure his 20th win of the season and the game looked destined to go into extra innings.
But Mookie Betts scored from first after bolting through the stop sign at third base in the ninth to score the winning run on a Rafael Devers single to right field that Stevie Wilkerson failed to throw back to the infield. Betts’ alertness helped lift Boston to a 5-4 win over the Baltimore Orioles in Game 162 at Fenway Park.
With the win, the Red Sox finished at 84-78, while the Orioles ended at 54-108.
Here’s how it all went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Weird.
There’s no better word to describe how that game ended.
ON THE BUMP
— Rodriguez picked up three strikeouts through his first two innings, but things weren’t as smooth in the third.
The southpaw walked Wilkerson to begin the inning before giving up back-to-back singles to Richie Martin and Hanser Alberto for the 1-0 lead. Austin Hays made it 2-0 with a double before Trey Mancini drove in the third run for Baltimore with a fielder’s choice before the frame came to a close.
Rodriguez cruised through the next four innings, tossing 1-2-3 frames in the fourth and sixth. His afternoon came to a close after amassing his eighth strikeout to end the seventh. His final line: seven innings, four hits, three earned runs, two walks and eight K’s.
— Matt Barnes gave up the game-tying run to the O’s to make it 4-4 in the eighth and essentially ended Rodriguez’s shot at 20 wins.
— The ninth belonged to Brandon Workman, who struck out the side in order.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— Boston got two runs back in the third.
Gorkys Hernandez tripled before Jackie Bradley Jr. was hit by a pitch to put runners on the corners with one out. Betts and Devers each laced an RBI single to make it 3-2.
— The Red Sox loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth, but got just one run out of it with a Christian Vazquez single.
— Devers helped Boston get the lead in the seventh with a double — his 200th hit of the season — and later was driven in on a Xander Bogaerts single to make it 4-3.
— Bradley looked destined to give Boston the lead in the eighth when he hit what should have been a two-run home run to right field, but Wilkerson made quite possibly the catch of the year to rob Bradley — something the center fielder does every season — of the round-tripper.
— Betts began the ninth inning with a walk and Devers followed that up with a single to Wilkerson. But some heads-up baserunning by Betts and him realizing Wilkerson failed to throw the ball into the infield resulted in him springing from first and to home plate to score the game-winning run.
— Devers led all Boston batters with three hits, while Betts and Vazquez had two.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Devers ended his season on a high note.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox now face a slew of questions heading into the offseason between finding a new president of baseball operations and deciding how to handle their pending free agents. Boston begins its 2020 season on the road in Toronto beginning March 26 with a four-game set against the Blue Jays.
