Gilbert's two-run blast sparks the Fenway rally that almost stuck

Drew Gilbert wrote the answer San Francisco needed after Boston's five-run third, and Rafael Devers finished the sentence a batter later. The Associated Press recap on ABC News said the Giants pulled within 5-4 in the fourth at Fenway Park when Gilbert hit a two-run homer off Red Sox starter Sonny Gray and Devers followed with a solo shot, his 26th of the season.

CBS Sports' scoring play shows Gilbert homered to right with Christian Koss aboard before Devers cleared center. Boston closed a 6-4 win, but the inning that made the night a fight belonged to Gilbert first.

The night Gilbert forced Fenway to listen

CBS Sports lists Gilbert in center field at three at-bats with one run, two hits, and two RBI — a 2-for-3 night that includes his seventh home run. The same board notes he singled in the first before leaving for pinch-hitter Jonah Cox in the seventh.

That early single was San Francisco's first hit off Gray; the fourth-inning blast turned the deficit into a one-run game.

The AP framed Gilbert's two-run shot as the spark of the Giants' three-run fourth. Koss had doubled to left, Gilbert drove him in with the homer to right, and Devers went back-to-back with the solo that made it 5-4.

San Francisco did not score again after that frame, per the CBS Sports scoring summary, yet the sequence remains the clearest stretch of resistance once Boston had seized control.

How the deficit formed before the rally

Willson Contreras' three-run homer led Boston's five-run third, the AP reported. Contreras jumped on an 85-mph changeup from Giants starter Logan Webb and crushed a 450-foot drive over the Green Monster for his 26th homer, putting the Red Sox ahead 3-1. Webb then walked Andruw Monasterio with the bases loaded and hit Mickey Gasper to force in another run before being pulled.

CBS Sports charged Webb with the loss after 2.2 innings, six hits, five earned runs, three walks, and two strikeouts (8-8).

Bryce Eldridge's RBI single in the top of the third had given San Francisco a brief 1-0 edge when Koss scored, the CBS play-by-play shows. Boston erased that lead in a hurry, and Wilyer Abreu's RBI triple in the sixth later stretched the Red Sox margin to 6-4.

Gray, Chapman, and the outs that held

Gray improved to 16-3 with six innings, seven hits, four runs, two walks, and six strikeouts on 97 pitches, according to the CBS Sports pitching line. Erik Miller and Alec Gamboa each worked a scoreless bridge.

Aroldis Chapman struck out three and walked one in the ninth for his 28th save, the AP noted, on a night that also marked Devers' first return to Fenway since the trade 14 months earlier.

Devers drew a mix of cheers and boos on introductions and louder boos when he came to bat, the AP wrote. Gilbert's fourth-inning homer did not rewrite that homecoming subplot, but it forced Fenway to treat the middle innings as unsettled baseball again.

What Gilbert carried out of Boston

San Francisco finished with seven hits and four runs against Boston's 11 hits and six runs. Gilbert's share was two hits and two RBI, including the two-run homer that scored Koss and moved him to 31 RBI on the CBS board.

Blade Tidwell is lined up next against Boston left-hander Patrick Sandoval, the AP reported. Whatever that outing becomes, Gilbert's seventh homer was the swing that turned a five-run Fenway hole into a one-run game — proof the Giants' night still had a pulse after Boston's third-inning surge.

Sources

abcnews.com

CBS Sports

NBC Sports Bay Area

The Associated Press