For eight innings, it looked like the Red Sox were content with making Sunday’s game the rubber game of their last full series at home in August. They produced only five hits against the Giants’ pitching staff, including a starter who was making just his third start of the year and was known mostly because his last name made everyone want to chant, “Show me the money!”
It seemed like the Sox offense was playing the role of Jerry Maguire and trying to get Tidwell a new contract! In 5 2/3 innings, Tidwell held Boston scoreless on just three hits while striking out seven. He had them off-balance and confused for the entire outing. Sox hitters were taking good pitches and lunging at bad ones, popping up or hitting weak fly balls whenever they actually managed to put their bats on the ball.
On the other side, Patrick Sandoval had a very...confusing outing. As you watched the game, it felt like you were sitting in the middle of a low-pressure system, with dark skies and chillier-than-normal temperatures, just waiting for a twister to touch down in the middle of Fenway Park. Yet it never truly reared its ugly head, despite all the alarms going off, especially early in the game.
In the first inning, he retired the first two batters he faced, including Devers, but then allowed a solo homer to Willy Adames on a pitch that would have made José David Flores proud. He was the coach who threw to Contreras in the Home Run Derby, for those scratching their heads at the reference.
Then, in the third, Sandoval offered up a second gopher ball, this time to noted power threat Andrew Knizner. It was his 20th home run of his eight-year career!
After that homer, the alarms were blaring, and I was just waiting for a pickup truck with Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton (God rest his soul) to crash through the Bleacher Bar in center field! Sandoval walked Devers, allowed a single to Adames, and then walked Eldridge to load the bases with one out, while the Fenway Faithful were all looking around for something to strap themselves down to.
But miraculously, the storm never came.
Sandoval struck out the next batter on three pitches and then induced a groundout to end the inning. From there, despite the nervousness and tension surrounding the Fens, the storm warning passed, and Sandoval managed to get through 5 2/3 innings himself.
From there, Greg Weissert, Jovani Moran, and some guy who calls himself Wyatt Olds threw three shutout innings to keep the Sox in the game.
To be clear, Olds certainly had a lot of help keeping the game 2-0 in the ninth from the player who would eventually become the star of the show. After surrendering two walks and a single, Olds found himself facing the Giants’ cleanup hitter, Bryce Eldridge, who had already reached base safely three times in the game.
With the count 2-2, the lefty smoked a line drive that appeared ticketed for right-center field when Nick Sogard took off “Superman Style” and picked the liner just before it hit the dirt.
Then came the ninth-inning drama that fans of this 2026 team have come to know and loathe...love...whatever!
Durbin led off with a walk, and then Jahmai Jones, pinch-hitting for Duran, wore a fastball off the left elbow, putting the tying runs on base. Eschewing the small-ball philosophy that has been so effective lately, Chad Tracy allowed Monasterio to swing away. Luckily, he managed to hit a one-hopper into the nether regions of the Giants’ second baseman, who recovered enough to force the runner at second but couldn’t much on his throw to first to double up Monasterio.
With runners on the corners and one out, Eli White pinch-hit for “The Mick” and lined an RBI single into center to cut the lead in half.
Then Sogard smoked a double off the Monster, scoring Monasterio and sending White, who made an excellent read on the ball, all the way to third despite an excellent play by the San Francisco left fielder.
The Giants intentionally walked Rafaela to face Abreu, who was having his worst game of the year. Coming into his at-bat in the ninth, he was 0-4 with four strikeouts, including one with the bases loaded and no outs the inning before.
After working the count full, Abreu erased all the bad vibes from the night by drilling a one-hopper to first that Eldridge made an outstanding diving play on while going to his left. His throw to the plate was a one-hopper as well, which Knizner made a wonderful lunging catch on, but it pulled his foot off the plate, allowing White to slide in with the winning run.
Blade Tidwell Slices, Dices, and Chops Up the Red Sox Offense
Tidwell’s outing was the one most pundits expected the night before from Logan Webb.
Blade was in command all night long. He mixed his pitches, got ahead in the count, and put hitters away to the tune of seven strikeouts. Of the three hits he allowed, two were infield singles, and the only hard contact was a single to left by Contreras.
This was a very different performance from a week ago, when he allowed six runs in four innings to the Rockies, walking five and striking out only one.
The Sandoval Experience Is Just Painful
If you didn’t watch the game and only looked at the box score afterward, it would appear that Patrick Sandoval pitched pretty well. He scattered five hits and two walks over five and two-thirds innings while giving up only two runs and keeping his team in the game.
But for those who suffered through this start and the other six he has made this year, you know, or at least your therapist or pharmacist knows, just how extreme a toll he has taken on your psyche.
Even when he is going “well,” it feels like he’s doing it with smoke and mirrors. And with a WHIP of 1.76, I think most of those mirrors already have a bunch of cracks in them, and we’re simply waiting for the decades of bad luck that will ensue once they finally shatter.
The concern is that the organization might not have anyone better to bring up to fill those innings, but I hope, for the sake of the fanbase and all the overworked medical practitioners in the region, that Breslow can find someone who can at least pitch with a little more empathy for the fans!
Time to Show Us What You’re Made Of
With the second series win in a row locked up, Sunday’s game becomes more about what Jake Bennett has left in the tank and less about the Sox keeping their heads above water in the playoff race.
Chad Tracy did an excellent job of limiting the use of his big guns out of the pen today, so tomorrow he should be able to back up the young lefty with some stout support.
The question is: Will Bennett be up to the task?
His last two appearances have left a lot to be desired, and if the team is going to challenge New York for the top Wild Card spot down the stretch, it is going to be imperative that Bennett regain some of the form he displayed for most of the season. Because if he can’t, we might have to see even more of the Twister King, and my heart just can’t take that.
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