The Red Sox did not exactly cruise through Wednesday night, and that is precisely why this 4-2 win over the Athletics should be taken seriously. When a game drags into the 10th inning after you have already stranded six runners over the previous three frames, you are not looking at a polished performance. You are looking at a team that kept knocking at the door until Andruw Monasterio finally kicked it in.
Monasterio's two-run home run was the decisive swing, and it changed the entire feel of a game Boston had spent far too long leaving undecided. The Athletics had taken a 2-1 lead in the fifth inning, Boston had answered with an unearned run in the sixth, and then both sides spent the next stretch daring someone else to make the mistake. That is usually when games turn into missed chances. Instead, Monasterio made sure the Red Sox did not waste theirs.
Boston needed a finish. Monasterio supplied it
There is a reason late-inning power matters. It allows a team to survive all the clutter that comes before it. Boston was not sharp enough to settle this in regulation, but it was persistent enough to hang around until one swing mattered. Monasterio went deep in the 10th, and suddenly the whole night looked different.
That does not erase the inefficiency. Stranding six runners over three innings before the homer is not the sign of an offense in complete control. But there is a line between wasteful and beaten, and Boston stayed on the right side of it. The Red Sox kept giving themselves another shot, and in the end the Athletics paid for allowing the game to remain within reach.
The pitching side had its own neat little milestone. Aroldis Chapman earned the win in his 900th career appearance, while Greg Weissert picked up his first save of the season. That is the sort of back-end detail that matters in a one-run-or-close-to-it game: someone has to hold the line long enough for the big swing to land.
There was also a small piece of context hanging over the night. Boston's road winning streak had already ended at 10 games the night before, so this was not about extending some impossible run. It was about reminding everyone that the Red Sox can still win ugly, late, and without much comfort. That is not glamorous. It is often exactly how long road success survives.
And now comes the next question. Red Sox right-hander Sonny Gray was set to start the series finale on Thursday, which means Boston had no time to admire this one for too long. But after a night like this, the message is obvious: even when the offense spends too long searching, it still has enough punch to finish the job.
