The Red Sox nearly blew this one. Boston carried a lead into the 10th inning against the Marlins in Miami, and rookie reliever Wyatt Olds looked like he had it handled — two outs, runners on second and third, and a strikeout of Javier Sanoja to end the threat. Except catcher Connor Wong couldn't corral the third strike, the ball got away, and Brian Navarreto trotted home from third to tie it right back up.
Brutal 🤮 Olds pitched his dick off. Ghost runner and shoulda gotten 4 outs without letting the runner score
That's the kind of sequence that lives in a fan's stomach for the rest of the night — a lockdown punchout undone by a ball in the dirt nobody could handle. Dave Portnoy's reaction pretty much summed up the vibe in real time: Olds pitched well enough to escape, and a wild pitch on strike three erased it anyway. Not his fault exactly, but it's on the line either way, and extra-inning baseball doesn't care about nuance.
OH NO RED SOX
Extra innings in the ghost-runner era have a way of turning bullpen mistakes into instant baseball discourse, and this was exhibit A — a scoreboard read Red Sox 3, Marlins 2 in the top of the 10th before Miami tied it in the bottom half. Boston's pen had done its job for eight-plus innings, and one bad hop turned it into a coin flip going to the 11th.
Boston didn't blink. Willson Contreras singled to open the 11th, Jahmai Jones drew a walk, and after a fielder's choice forced a runner at home, Jarren Duran stepped in with the bases loaded and one out. He turned on a sweeper and put it 412 feet away for a grand slam, the kind of swing that turns a blown lead into a laugher — Red Sox 7, Marlins 3, final.
It was Duran's 18th home run of the season and the loudest note in a stretch that's turned the Red Sox into one of baseball's hottest teams. The win pushed Boston to 5 straight victories and 9 wins in their last 12 games, having taken three straight series in the process. A blown lead in extras is usually the kind of thing that sinks a night — instead it turned into just another chapter in a red-hot summer for this club.