BOSTON — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ 7-6 10-inning loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Fenway Park on Wednesday:
1. The Diamondbacks played small ball to take a 6-5 lead against Red Sox left-handed reliever Jovani Morán in the 10th inning. Geraldo Perdomo put down a sacrifice bunt to advance Gabriel Moreno, the automatic runner, to third base. With the Red Sox playing the infield in, Nolan Arenado hit a 145-foot single just over the head of shortstop Andruw Monasterio.
Monasterio backpedaled but he couldn’t get to it as the ball landed just over the infield dirt in shallow left field.
2. Control issues from Morán then led to another run. Morán walked the next three hitters to walk in a run, making it 7-5. He fell behind 1-0 to Ryan Waldschmidt but got Waldschmidt to ground into an inning-ending double play and minimize the damage.
3. With both Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten on the IL due to elbow inflammation, interim manager Chad Tracy had to use Morán in that spot. Erik Miller had already pitched the seventh and Tyron Guerrero pitched the eighth. If Whitlock and Slaten were healthy, Tracy likely would have had either Guerrero or Miller still available to pitch the 10th inning.
4. Boston was able to cut it to 7-6 in the bottom of the 10th. Wilyer Abreu’s groundout advanced automatic runner Ceddanne Rafaela to third base, then Willson Contreras’ RBI groundout knocked him home. But Caleb Durbin popped out to first base to end the game.
5. The Red Sox dropped to 68-59. The Diamondbacks improved to 67-61. Boston dropped back below .500 at Fenway Park at 31-32.
6.Mickey Gasper didn’t homer in his first 47 games with the Red Sox but he’s now homered in each of Boston’s past three games. Gasper tied the game 5-5 in the sixth inning with a two-out, three-run home run to right field. He connected on a changeup from Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt and sent it 407 feet to right field.
7. In his 322nd career plate appearance, Nick Sogard belted his first big league home run. The 28-year-old infielder led off the bottom of the first inning with a 385-foot blast to right field, putting Boston ahead 1-0.
8. Jarren Duran’s batting average has hung around the Mendoza Line for much of the season, but he has provided home run power. He led off the third inning with a 388-foot home run to right field, putting Boston ahead 2-0. It was his 17th blast of the season, putting him on pace for 22 home runs in 2026.
9. Red Sox starter Payton Tolle escaped a jam in the second inning but wasn’t able to do the same in the fifth inning. He allowed a two-out, two-run double to Gabriel Moreno on his 93rd pitch of the game, giving Arizona a 3-2 lead.
Duran dived and initially had the ball in his glove but it bounced out.
Tolle allowed three runs, six hits and two walks while striking out six in five innings. He threw 68 of his 98 pitches for strikes. He recorded 11 swings and misses. He averaged 97 mph with his four-seam fastball.
10. Tolle’s five innings were the fewest he’s thrown in a start since July 12 in New York vs. the Mets, when he allowed one run in 3 ⅔ innings. That game against the Mets was a scheduled short outing. The Sox planned to pull him at around 65 pitches and they did remove him at 66 pitches.
11. Greg Weissert has now given up a career-high eight home runs this season. No. 8 came in the sixth inning when pinch-hitter Lars Nootbaar clobbered a 420-foot, 110.5 mph two-run home run to right-center field that put Arizona ahead 5-2.
12. Third baseman Caleb Durbin has played strong defense all season. He ranks in the 87th percentile in outs above replacement (4). He leads all AL third basemen in defensive runs saved with 11. He made another fine play Wednesday, ranging to his left to field Ildemaro Vargas’ 99.8 mph ground ball and then throwing home to cut down Jose Fernandez trying to score for the first out of the third inning.
Durbin helped keep the D-backs off the board in that inning despite Fernandez’s leadoff double and Ryan Waldschmidt’s no-out single.
13. A strike-three curveball got well past catcher Connor Wong, but he ran it down and fired to first baseman Willson Contreras to complete the strikeout of Gabriel Moreno, ending the third inning.
14. The Red Sox have Thursday off. They will welcome Rafael Devers and the Giants to town for the first game of a three-game series Friday at 7:10 p.m. Right-hander Sonny Gray (15-3, 2.65 ERA) will start for Boston. San Francisco has not yet named its starting pitcher.
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