Red Sox beat Blue Jays in 10 innings on walk-off RBI by Trevor Story

BOSTON — After watching his team strike out 30 times in the prior three games, Red Sox manager Alex Cora had a simple message to his team when he arrived at the ballpark on Thursday.

“Put the ball in play,” Cora said pregame. “That’s the bottom line.”

It took a little while, but when the chips were down, the Red Sox took that message to heart.

With the bases loaded and the game tied with one out in the bottom of the 10th, Trevor Story worked a 2-2 count and sent a soft dribbler towards the second baseman. It wasn’t the prettiest ball, but Toronto Blue Jays infielder Andres Gimenez couldn’t make a play at home or turn a double play, leaving him with nothing to do but throw to first, giving Story a walk-off groundout to send the Red Sox off on their next road trip with a 4-3 extra-innings win.

“You put it in play something can happen,” Cora said. “He did a good job fouling off pitches and we ended up winning the game.”

Story joked afterwards it was one of the best groundouts of his career.

“For sure, just given the situation, a funky pitcher up on the mound and just trying to find a way to get it done,” Story said. “I felt like I didn’t the last couple of nights with runners on and just a grinder of an at bat, just trying to find a way to put it in play.”

The exciting finish capped off a second straight pitchers duel between the Red Sox and Blue Jays’ starters.

Much like Tanner Houck and Kevin Gausman on Wednesday night, Walker Buehler versus Chris Bassitt proved to be another fantastic battle between two likeminded arms. Buehler and Bassitt both boast expansive arsenals — with Buehler utilizing seven pitches and Bassitt eight — and the two starters utilized their stuff to great effect.

Coming in having allowed nine earned runs over 9 1/3 innings through his first two starts, Buehler initially looked like he was in for another rocky day after allowing singles to two of the first three batters he faced. But Buehler drew a double play to get out of trouble and went on to enjoy his best outing by far since joining the Red Sox.

“This is as good as I’ve felt,” Buehler said. “We put in a ton of work this week with everyone in the building about what we’re seeing and what we’re feeling, and it paid off.”

Bassitt, meanwhile, became the latest Blue Jays pitcher to tie the Red Sox batters into knots. He was nearly unhittable through the first five innings, but provided an opening in the sixth when he walked Jarren Duran. With runs at a premium, Duran stole second and tagged up to reach third on a Rafael Devers flyout, and that helped set the table for Alex Bregman, who came through with Boston’s first hit with a runner in scoring position in 13 chances dating back to Tuesday.

Buehler got stronger as his outing went along and at one point retired 12 of 13 batters, but he made a costly mistake in the seventh when he gave up a four-pitch leadoff walk to Will Wagner. Buehler recorded one more out before Cora opted for left-hander Justin Wilson, and the inherited runner came in to score on a subsequent RBI single by Tyler Heineman that tied the game.

Buehler finished with one run allowed over 6 1/3 innings, giving up four hits and a walk while striking out seven. Bassitt was charged with one run over 5 2/3 innings, including five hits, one walk and five strikeouts.

Then, after the game was tied, the Red Sox had another ill-timed lapse on defense.

Since returning to Fenway Park the Red Sox have committed 11 errors in seven games, and the last of those proved costly when the club couldn’t convert what would have been an inning-ending double play to get out of the seventh. With the go-ahead runner at third, Wilson drew a ground ball from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., but rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell opted to flip the ball to Story rather than tag the bag himself, leading to a bad throw that allowed Guerrero to reach safely and Alan Roden to score.

“Stuff like that is going to happen, he’s learning on the job,” Cora said. “A little bit of hesitation there, a miscommunication, but he should get that ball, step on the bag and turn the double play.”

Fortunately for the Red Sox, the Blue Jays returned the favor in the eighth inning with three gifts of their own.

First, Toronto allowed Rob Refsnyder to reach on an error at third, then the Blue Jays couldn’t complete what would have been an inning-ending double play on a Bregman grounder. That moved Refsnyder to third, and with Triston Casas at the plate, reliever Yimi Garcia threw a pitch in the dirt that allowed Refsnyder to score and tie the game at 2-2.

Once in extra innings the Blue Jays took a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly by George Springer, but the Red Sox answered with an RBI single by Duran to tie the game again. Duran was caught stealing trying to get into scoring position, but the Red Sox got another opportunity anyway after Devers singled and Bregman and Casas were each hit by pitches by Blue Jays right-hander Nick Sandlin, loading the bases with one out.

That brought Story to the plate, and after coming up short in a similar spot earlier in the week, the Red Sox shortstop delivered and brought David Hamilton home from third to clinch the win. Now, after snapping the club’s three-game losing streak and finishing with a 4-3 record on the homestand, the Red Sox (7-7) will look to get back over .500 when they open their next series against the last-place Chicago White Sox on Friday night.

“We’ll have a happy flight,” Story said. “It’s a good start to where we want to dominate at home, we felt like we could have snuck out a couple of more, but a winning homestand is good.”

Hendriks dominates

Right-hander Liam Hendriks enjoyed a strong showing in his rehab outing for the Worcester Red Sox on Thursday night, recording three strikeouts in a scoreless inning of work. Hendriks allowed a single on a soft grounder but otherwise struck out every other batter he faced, and the expectation is barring any setbacks he will make one more rehab outing before potentially making a return to the big league bullpen.