By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief
BOSTON – San Diego closer Mason Miller entered the game in the bottom of the ninth inning to much fanfare. Fenway Park’s welcome was actually a rallying cry to the home Boston Red Sox and they came to the plate with the heart of the order scheduled to bat. Miller struck out Boston shortstop Trevor Story on three pitches, then got No. 3 hitter Jarren Duran with only four pitches.
Lastly, Miller earned his fourth save of the season by mowing down Willson Contreras with a 89 mph slider to strike out the side and secure an 8-6 victory for the visiting Padres (4-5). The Red Sox fell to (2-7) and will limp into a three-game set vs. Milwaukee on Monday night at Fenway..
After a paltry 1-5 start to the 2026 Major League Baseball season, the Boston Red Sox needed two big games. One came on their home opening day, on Friday, when the Sox defeated the San Diego Padres 5-2 before a festive sellout crowd at Fenway Park, but the other fell short Sunday, when the Sox faced those same Padres in the rubber-game of their three-game series and dropped it.
Boston tallied first, scoring four runs in the bottom half of the third inning. The inning began with two base-on-balls issued to catcher Carlos Narvaez and designated hitter Roman Anthony, respectively. After Boston Story moved the runners up a base with a ground-out to first, centerfielder Jarren Duran laced a double down the right field side, scoring both Narvaez and Anthony.
Later in the inning, Boston’s rightfielder Wilyer Abreu cracked a drive to the wall in right for a stand-up triple. Left fielder Masataka Yoshida followed with a double to right, scoring Abreu and giving Boston a 4-0 lead. With that, San Diego yanked starter Walker Buehler in the third as his line was a horrid, 2.2 IP, three hots, four runs, all earned with three walks and four strike-outs. Buehler threw 61 pitches in his 2.2 IP with 33 strikes.
San Diego followed a half-inning later, tallying three runs on four hits and an error. Fernando Tatis Jr. started the rally wqith a double ripped to the left-center field gap. Centerfielder Jackson Merrill knocked in Tatis with a base hit to right and Manny Machado followed immediately afterward with a single. The two runners advanced on an errant throw by Boston’s backstop, Narvaez, and newly acquired first baseman Nick Castellanos knocked in the pair of runners with a single to cut the Red Sox lead to 4-3. . Castellanos was batting .154 when the game started.
San Diego scored another three runs in the 5th inning. Catcher Luis Campusano and Merrill each singled to set the table for Padres third baseman and All-Star Manny Machado’s 365-foot, three-run homer to left field which gave the Padres a 6-4 lead in the middle of the 5th.
Manager Alex Cora had yanked starter Ranger Suarez after the Campusano single, so reliever Greg Weissert was left holding two of those three runs on his resume. Weissert was replaced by rookie right-hander Tyler Uberstine in the sixth inning.
Boston tied the game in the bottom of the 7th inning when Story singled, first baseman Contreras traded the base paths on a field’s choice but Abreu laced a double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd base. Yoshida came through in the clutch with a two-out double to right-center field, scoring both Contreras and Abreu.
With the score knotted at 6-6, Merrill led-off the 8th inning with a 384-foot home run to right field, hitting a 2-2 pitch off Uberstine – his first homer to be let up at Fenway. The Padres scored an insurance run in the top of the 9th. Tatis ripped a long sacrifice fly ball to center and pinch hitter Gavin Sheets scored after he had hit a double to lead-off the inning.
Jeremiah Estrada was credited with the victory. He is (1-0), while the rookie, Uberstine, took the loss. He is (0-1).
The Padres will fly to Pittsburgh to face the National League Pirates in their next series.