Caleb Durbin hit a solo home run to break a tie score in the eighth inning as the Boston Red Sox extended their winning streak to 14 games by beating the visiting Baltimore Orioles, 6-5, Monday night.
Durbin’s homer came against reliever Tyler Wells (2-2) and broke a 5-5 tie. It was his 10th home run of the season.
Baltimore had runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth, but Tyler O’Neill lined out to shortstop to end the game. Garrett Whitlock (5-1) pitched a scoreless eighth to earn the win. Aroldis Chapman worked the ninth for his 22nd save.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand homered and Gunnar Hunderson had three doubles for the Orioles, who committed four errors. The loss ended Baltimore’s seven-game winning streak.
Boston received three hits from Willson Contreras.
The Orioles struck first when Henderson and O’Neill hit back-to-back doubles with two outs in the top of the first.
Jarren Duran’s sacrifice fly drove in Contreras to make it a 1-1 game in the second, and the Red Sox added two runs in the third. Ceddanne Rafaela reached base on an error by second baseman Jeremiah Jackson, took third on Wilyer Abreu’s double and scored on a Henderson throwing error from first base. Contreras followed with an infield single that scored Abreu to extend Boston’s lead to 3-1.
Baltimore trimmed Boston’s advantage to 3-2 when Encarnacion-Strand hit a solo home run in the fifth, and Jackson’s RBI single in the sixth drove in O’Neill to tie the game, 3-3. Baltimore went ahead 4-3 on an Encarnacion-Strand single that scored Leody Taveras later in the sixth.
Abreu scored on a Contreras double in the bottom half of the sixth to pull the Red Sox even, 4-4.
Taylor Ward put Baltimore in front 5-4 by scoring from third on an O’Neill groundout in the seventh, but Boston answered in the bottom of the inning when Tsung-Che Cheng scored on a throwing error by Ward in left field.
Durbin’s home run capped the scoring with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
