Sonny Gray carried the Red Sox into the eighth with a no-hitter against the rival New York Yankees, reaching 2,000 career strikeouts and pitching 7 1/3 dominant innings. New York’s rally erased Boston’s 2-0 lead with late runs, but the Red Sox answered with th
When Sonny Gray walked off the mound after the eighth, the night already felt loaded. A no-hitter into the eighth inning. Nine strikeouts. 2,000 career strikeouts reached along the way. And Boston had the rival New York Yankees right where it wanted them — clinging to a 2-0 advantage.
Then the game changed.
Amed Rosario ended the no-hit bid with a one-out single up the middle on Gray’s 97th pitch. The Yankees didn’t just keep the momentum; they found a way to push it. New York scored two runs in the ninth to tie the game, then plated two more in the 10th to take a 4-2 lead.
Boston, though, kept swinging back.
In the bottom half of the 10th, the Red Sox scored three runs and walked off with Jarren Duran’s game-ending single, turning what looked like a collapse into a 5-4 victory in extra innings. The win capped a four-game sweep at Fenway Park and marked the Red Sox’s longest winning streak this season.
Gray spoke afterward with the kind of fatigue that comes from surviving a difficult stretch and still getting the result. “We’ve had a good weekend,” he said, crediting the team’s focus as much as his own effort. “They’re at the top of our division right now. They are where we hope to be. So yeah. it was a good series and it was a pretty sick finish to the series for us. ” Gray added.
The sweep carried meaningful ripple effects in the AL East. The Yankees are now a game behind first-place Tampa Bay in the standings, aided in large part by Boston’s first four-game sweep in the rivalry since 2018.
Even with the chaos at the end, Gray’s work earlier in the game stood out. He struck out nine and shut down the Yankees for 7 1/3 innings. allowing no hits until that one-out single in the eighth. When asked what he was thinking through it all. Gray kept it simple: “I was just trying to do my part to win the game. That’s all I was thinking about other than executing a pitch,” he said. “I just felt very focused. I wanted to come out and win the game and we did that.”.
He didn’t dwell on the Yankees matchup beyond what it meant in the moment. Gray’s history with New York is well known: he pitched for the Yankees after a trade-deadline deal in 2017. but the following season he lost his spot in the rotation. He was ultimately left off the Yankees’ postseason roster. His time there ended with an offseason trade to Cincinnati. After stops in Minnesota and St. Louis, the veteran right-hander arrived in Boston this season — and said he never really wanted to play for New York.
Boston fans still managed to make the night about celebration. Gray left the game to a standing ovation in the eighth after Rosario spoiled the no-hit bid. and Gray said he understood why. “I think in the sixth inning or something they started really like getting into it and it was cool. I appreciated that,” he said. “I appreciate them and it seemed like they appreciated the outing tonight. We need them. If we’re going to get back into this thing, we need them. And they were here for us this weekend, so I appreciated that.”.
For Boston, the comeback wasn’t only a pitching story. It began with defense. In the third inning. Wilyer Abreu robbed Austin Wells of a hit with a sliding grab in shallow right field after a full sprint to reach a sinking ball in time. Abreu also later committed a pair of costly throwing errors. late mistakes that helped the Yankees tie the game and then take the lead.
Interim manager Chad Tracy said he still had plenty of confidence in Abreu. and he pointed to the way the dugout responded as the game tilted against them. “We’ve had a good weekend. Even though we gave up a couple of runs. the energy in the dugout coming in was like. let’s go win the game. ” Tracy said. “There’s been times here in the past couple of months where that would have kind of crushed us. but that was not the case. They were fired up to try and get that done.”.
The evening featured momentum swings from the first few innings. Yankees starter Carlos Rodón had a one-hitter going after holding Boston without a hit through the first three innings. Caleb Durbin ended that with a two-run single in the fourth with one out.
On the surface, this was a game Boston won in dramatic fashion. But in the stands. and in the dugout. it played like a test of resilience — one that started with Gray carrying the Yankees almost all the way to the edge of history. and ended with the Red Sox refusing to let the final innings steal the sweep away.
Sonny Gray Boston Red Sox New York Yankees Fenway Park 10th inning walk-off single Jarren Duran Amed Rosario AL East Tampa Bay Carlos Rodón Caleb Durbin Wilyer Abreu Chad Tracy