BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox were charging out of the dugout before the winning run reached home plate.
After a 10-game skid, winning sure feels good.
Additional Images
Atlanta’s third error in the final two innings allowed Jackie Bradley Jr. to score from second as the Red Sox rallied to beat Atlanta 4-3 on Thursday night for their fourth straight win.
“They contributed with some balls in play on the defensive side of things,” Boston manager John Farrell said. “Just a good comeback win overall.”
Boston trailed 3-1 before tying it with a pair of runs in the eighth, then won it in the ninth.
Bradley and Brock Holt drew back-to-back walks off closer Craig Kimbrel (0-1). Xander Bogaerts followed with a hard grounder to Chris Johnson at third base for an infield single. Johnson stopped it and made a strong throw to second but Tommy La Stella missed the catch with Holt bearing down.
Bradley hadn’t even scored yet when the Red Sox began rushing out of the dugout.
“The arrow’s pointing in the right direction,” Bradley said.
Bogaerts was credited with a single and the error was initially charged to Johnson. The official scoring on the play was changed later and the error charged to La Stella.
The change mattered little to the Braves.
“You play this game long enough, things like that are going to happen,” said center fielder B.J. Upton, who had one of two errors for the Braves in the eighth. “We’ll get by it and be ready to play tomorrow.”
Koji Uehara (1-1) got the win after eight solid innings by starter Jake Peavy for the Red Sox, who completed a four-game sweep in the home-and-home series with the Braves.
“It’s just unfortunate. I felt like we were making good pitches at the end and the balls were just dropping in,” Atlanta starter Mike Minor said. “They’re a tough team. I feel like every four games we played them, they battled back every time. It’s kind of expected out of them to battle back.”
Minor also pitched well, holding Boston to one run on seven hits in seven innings. Minor didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.
Jason Heyward homered and Freddie Freeman drove in a run and scored once for the Braves, who lost their fourth straight.
Holt led off the eighth with a bloop single to left off reliever David Carpenter. He went to second when left fielder Justin Upton took his eye off the ball and it bounced past him. Bogaerts followed with an RBI single and Dustin Pedroia reached on a slow roller up the middle that was called a hit.
A.J. Pierzynski followed with another single to center that B.J. Upton let get by him for the second error of the inning, allowing Bogaerts to score and tie it at 3.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.