Sep. 12—You could hear the disbelief in the NESN broadcast crew’s voices as the ball left the park.
Leury Garcia?
The light hitting utility man, who came into Sunday with only four home runs in 349 at bats on the season, was probably the last person anyone expected would take Garrett Whitlock deep for a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. But that’s exactly what happened as Garcia took an 0-2, two-out pitch 430 feet to straight away center to give his Chicago White Sox the dramatic 2-1 win.
In the process, he also delivered the Red Sox a crushing blow. Boston leaves town having lost two of three, and now the Red Sox find themselves tied with the Toronto Blue Jays atop the American League Wild Card standings.
If there was one silver lining, however, it’s that Boston got a full taste of playoff-caliber baseball and largely held its own despite coming out on the wrong end.
“We’re playing good baseball, the last three games felt like the playoffs,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “The at bats, the intensity, the moves, obviously we lost the series but we played well. We’ll be ready.”
The dramatic finish capped off what had been an excellent pitcher’s duel between the two playoff contenders. Nick Pivetta was great in his return from the COVID-19 injured list, pitching 5.1 innings while allowing just one unearned run on three hits and no walks, and AL Cy Young contender Lance Lynn was outstanding for Chicago, striking out nine over five scoreless innings.
Chicago’s lone run against Pivetta came after an error by Kiké Hernández allowed Cesar Hernandez to reach, and he came around to score on an RBI single by Luis Robert.
Red Sox relievers Adam Ottavino, Darwinzon Hernandez, and Hansel Robles held Chicago at bay through the late innings until the Red Sox offense finally got going in the ninth. Facing former Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel, who was pitching for the third consecutive day, Boston loaded the bases and tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Alex Verdugo to deep left field.
But Boston couldn’t do any more damage beyond that, and while Whitlock looked set to cruise through the bottom of the ninth, Garcia wound up making the team pay.
With the loss Boston (81-64) now finds itself potentially one game away from falling below the playoff cutline. The Red Sox will next fly to Seattle where they will face the fellow Wild Card contending Mariners for a three-game series starting Monday.
Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.
Email: mcerullo@northofboston.com. Twitter: @MacCerullo.