Red Sox 9, Mariners 8: Story Walks It Off After Intentional-Walk Chaos

Two free passes, then a 3-2 liner

August 31, 2026 – Boston – Seattle had the 10th inning planned. Put the automatic runner on second. Walk the next two. Make Trevor Story beat you with the bases loaded.

Story beat them.

He lined a 3-2 pitch from Cooper Criswell into the left-center gap. Eli White scored from third. Fenway spilled onto the infield. The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 9-8 in 10 innings. Boston 9/12/0. Seattle 8/11/0. Chapman got the win. Criswell took the loss.

Boston had just dropped three of four to the Yankees. Seattle has now lost five straight. One walk-off single flipped both stories for a night.

Fenway kept flipping the lead

Mickey Gasper, up from the taxi squad after Willson Contreras went on the injured list with a strained left hamstring, tied it in the first with a solo shot to right-center (387 feet) off George Kirby. Jarren Duran made it 3-1 in the second, a two-run homer to right (409 feet) that scored Nick Sogard.

Randy Arozarena would not let Seattle leave. He doubled, singled, and went over the Green Monster in the third, a 402-foot cut that made it 3-2. His RBI single in the fifth tied it at 3-3. Four hits. Four RBI. Three runs. He owned the first five innings.

Ceddanne Rafaela shoved Boston back in front in the fifth with a two-run single that scored Connor Wong and Roman Anthony. 5-3. That lead lasted until the sixth.

Four in the sixth, then Raleigh

Payton Tolle had given Boston five-plus innings and six strikeouts. He also had Arozarena's homer and a 4-run sixth forming behind him. Arozarena singled home two more. Dominic Canzone doubled home two after that. 7-5, Seattle, and Tolle was gone after 5 2/3 innings, six hits, four earned.

Tayler Guerrero could not stop the bleeding. Cal Raleigh led off the seventh with his 20th homer of the year, 355 feet to left off Mason Miller. 8-5. Fenway got quiet in the way it does when a weekend hangover looks like it will last into September.

It did not last.

Story in the eighth, Rafaela in the ninth

Eduardo Bazardo walked into the eighth with a three-run lead and left with a one-run lead. Sogard and Caleb Durbin singled. Story doubled them both in. 8-7.

Andrés Muñoz came on to finish the eighth and started the ninth. Roman Anthony led off with a triple when Julio Rodríguez slid for a catch and the ball hopped past him. Rafaela's fly to left scored Anthony. 8-8. Muñoz struck out three in the outing. The one ball that got over the outfielder's glove was the one that mattered.

Aroldis Chapman (3-4) threw a clean 10th. Two strikeouts. No hits. That put the mess on Criswell (2-2).

Sogard bunted White to third. Dan Wilson asked for two intentional walks, Durbin and Duran, to load the bases and set up a force at every bag. Criswell's first three pitches missed. Fenway started measuring a walk-off walk. Story took a strike, swung through a sinker, then got the next one over the plate and one-hopped the wall in center.

White scored. Story flipped the bat. The Red Sox had four unanswered runs and a 75-63 record.

What the box actually said

Kirby: five innings, seven hits, five runs, two homers, 86 pitches. Tolle: 5 2/3, six hits, four runs, six strikeouts, 96 pitches. The bullpens decided it. Chapman was the only Boston reliever who did not allow a run after the sixth. Criswell faced four batters, walked two on purpose, and gave up the single that ended it.

Domínguez and Speier each threw a clean hold. Bazardo faced four hitters and allowed three of them to reach. Muñoz struck out three around Anthony's triple and Rafaela's fly. That is a blown save with a 3-2 count still in it.

Arozarena went 4-for-5 and still left with a loss. Story finished 2-for-5 with three RBI. Rafaela matched him at three RBI. Boston went 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Seattle went 5-for-17. That is how you climb out of 8-5 and how you give it back.

Tolle's lighter moment belonged in the recap too. He pounced on Canzone's dribbler up the first-base line, tagged him, and hugged him on the way by. The sixth inning erased the joke. The 10th erased the sixth.

The ninth and 10th belonged to Muñoz and Criswell, then Chapman. Boston's 75-63 card is a club that still sits in the wild-card picture after a bad Yankees weekend. Seattle's 64-74 card is a club that has now lost five straight and used its closer in a tie game that became extras.

What's next

Bryan Woo (9-9, 4.36 ERA) starts the middle game for Seattle. Boston had not named a starter when the recaps posted. Story just reminded Fenway why the club kept waiting on him. The Mariners have to decide whether walking two hitters to get to him is a plan they want to try twice.

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*Sources: ESPN box score, ESPN recap, MLB Gameday, MLB schedule. Information only; not financial advice.*