Red Sox reactions: Sonny Gray takes no-hit bid into 8th, Boston rallies to win crazy game

BOSTON — Instant reactions as Sonny Gray pitches 7 ⅓ no-hit innings, the Red Sox (36-46) blow a late lead — and then rally for a crazy, dramatic 5-4, 10-inning win to finish off a four-game sweep of the Yankees on Sunday night:

1) What looked like one of the worst losses imaginable turned into perhaps Boston’s best win of the year. The Yankees rallied back from a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the ninth to score four unanswered runs, but the Red Sox punched back with a three-run 10th-inning rally and won the game on a Jarren Duran walk-off single.

Shortly after Justin Slaten allowed two Yankees runs in the top of the inning, Anthony Seigler led off with an RBI single to make it a one-run game, scoring the automatic runner. Pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida then jumped on the first pitch Fernando Cruz threw him to put two runners in scoring position with a double into right field. Then, Tsung-Che Cheng’s sacrifice fly tied it before Duran — who didn’t start the game against lefty Carlos Rodón — ended it by shooting a 1-1 slider into right field, finding green grass with the Yankees playing with five infielders.

Cruz allowed three runs while recording just one out. It was Boston’s second walk-off win of the year and the first since April 17. Duran now has two walk-off hits, with the other coming in 2024.

2) For much of the night, Gray looked like he was going to make history, dominating the Yankees lineup for 7 ⅓ hitless innings in his best outing of 2026. With one out in the eighth, Rosario laced a single up the middle, ending Gray’s no-hit bid — and his night.

Gray allowed just one baserunner (he walked Rosario in the fifth) in the first eight innings and struck out nine batters. He threw 97 pitches and received a very loud ovation from the crowd at Fenway Park. Gray tipped his cap to the fans and was greeted with hugs from various teammates as he approached the dugout.

It was the longest no-hit bid of Gray’s 14-year big league career, beating a seven-inning effort when he was with the A’s back in April 2015. The last Red Sox pitcher to have a bid that long was Garrett Crochet last April in Chicago. Crochet also went 7 ⅓ no-hit innings in that game.

3) The crazy win allowed the Red Sox to do something they hadn’t done all season: win a fourth game in a row. Boston now has its longest winning streak of 2026 after stalling out at three straight wins on three separate occasions, with the last coming May 20 after a sweep in Kansas City.

The Red Sox had not swept a four-game series against New York since August 2018. They’ve now won five of their last six against the Yankees this season after dropping the first three. The rivalry will be renewed in the Bronx in late August.

4) Gray’s part of the game came easy for the Red Sox. Once Aroldis Chapman entered for the ninth, things went off the rails as the closer blew his second save in six days.

Chapman allowed a leadoff single to José Caballero, then walked Anthony Volpe before Ben Rice lifted a deep fly ball to Abreu. With Caballero trying to advance to third, Abreu threw into the infield but airmailed second baseman Anthony Seigler with no Sox in position to back up.

The ball got all the way to the backstop as Caballero scored and Volpe got all the way to third. Volpe then scored the tying run on a Paul Goldschmidt chopper to shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng, sliding under Connor Wong’s tag at the plate.

5) More aggressive Yankees baserunning and sloppiness by Abreu led to the Yankees taking a 4-2 lead in the 10th. Facing Slaten with automatic runner Max Schuemann on second, Rosario lifted a fly ball into shallow left. Schuemann — for some reason — was off on contact and right fielder Wilyer Abreu failed to make the catch, dropping the ball. Schuemann aggressively went home to score as Rosario took second. The Yankees then went up two runs when Rosario broke for home on an Austin Wells swinging bunt and beat Slaten’s flip home.

At that point, it looked like the Red Sox were staring down the barrel of their worst loss of the season — and recent memory, really. But the bats ensured that wouldn’t happen against a flustered Cruz in the 10th.

6) Despite blowing the save, Chapman made a bit of history with two strikeouts. His inning-ending punch-out of Schuemann was the 1,363rd of his career, tying Hoyt Wilhelm for the most by a reliever in MLB history. Chapman will have that record all to himself with one more strikeout the next time he pitches.

Gray also had a personal milestone, notching his 2,000th strikeout when he got Spencer Jones to lead off the eighth. He’s the seventh active pitcher to get to that mark.

7) Gray’s deep bid came after a series of no-hit flirtations by his Red Sox rotation mates. Last Friday in Seattle, Ranger Suarez went 6 ⅓ innings before giving up a hit. The two games before Sunday’s saw Payton Tolle throw 5 ⅓ perfect innings Friday night and Jake Bennett take a no-hit bid into the fifth Saturday.

Gray’s attempt, though, felt more real than the others. If he had gotten the final five outs without allowing a hit, he would have been the first Red Sox pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Jon Lester in 2008 (and the first major league starter to do it since Los Angeles’ Blake Snell in 2024).

“I legitimately thought he was gonna do it,” said interim manager Chad Tracy.

8) The Red Sox took the lead with some timely hitting in the fourth. Facing a staunch Carlos Rodón, Abreu worked a one-out walk, then Willson Contreras reached on a fielding error by Oswaldo Cabrera at third base. With two outs, Caleb Durbin dumped a two-run single into shallow center field. Durbin had the go-ahead hit in two of Boston’s four wins in the series.

Durbin’s hit was the only hit of the game until the bottom of the seventh, when Wong went the other way with a one-out single. It was a sleepy offensive effort until the late-inning fireworks, and there were just nine total hits between the clubs.

9) Every no-hitter (or deep bid) has a very memorable defensive play — and Abreu had Sunday’s. With one out in the third, Wells smacked a sinking liner into right-center and Abreu, after getting a great jump, made a very impressive sliding catch on the ball.

Gray tipped his cap toward his right fielder after the play. It was a night of high highs and low lows for the two-time Gold Glover, who had a two-error game.

10) Chad Tracy went to Tyron Guerrero — and not Garrett Whitlock — to replace Gray in the eighth. Whitlock had already pitched twice in the series (Thursday and Saturday) and was not available, according to Tracy. In any case, Guerrero got the call before passing the baton to Chapman.

11) The Red Sox couldn’t get much going against Rodón, who allowed just the one hit in five innings. But four walks drove up the lefty’s pitch count and he left the game at 96 pitches after five innings.

Both of Boston’s runs off him were unearned.

12) Romy Gonzalez went 0-for-4 in his return to the lineup (and season debut), grounding out all four times he came to the plate. He grounded into a double play in the bottom of the ninth after Willson Contreras led off with a single.

13) The frustrations of a long weekend in Boston boiled over for the Yankees after the sixth inning when Jazz Chisholm Jr. took exception to home plate umpire Adam Hamari ruling that he swung on a pitch in the dirt for strike three. Chisholm threw his helmet and was ejected as manager Aaron Boone ran out to calm things down.

14) The hot-hitting Nationals are next up on the schedule for the Red Sox. Here’s the schedule (with pitching probables) for the three-game series, which starts Monday night at Fenway:

Monday, 7:10 p.m. ET — RHP Miles Mikolas (2-6, 5.24 ERA) vs. LHP Ranger Suarez (3-3, 2.83 ERA)

Tuesday, 7:10 p.m. ET — RHP Cade Cavalli (4-4, 4.00 ERA) vs. LHP Connelly Early (7-5, 3.59 ERA)

Wednesday, 1:35 p.m. ET — LHP Andrew Alvarez (1-1, 3.44 ERA) vs. LHP Payton Tolle (4-5, 2.78 ERA)

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