Franchy Cordero hit a walkoff grandslam with two outs in the 10th inning Sunday afternoon, as the Boston Red Sox finished off a four game sweep of the Seattle Mariners with an 8-4 win at Fenway Park.
Starting pitchers Nathan Eovaldi for the Red Sox and Logan Gilbert for the Mariners both threw the ball well, but neither factored into the decision. Christian Arroyo, who was filling in at DH for JD Martinez who was out with back spasms, took the first pitch he saw into the monster seats off the National Car Rental sign with two outs and noone on in the second inning to make it 1-0 Boston. Xander Bogaerts hit an RBI sacrifice fly in the third to extend the lead to a pair. Eovaldi only made one mistake. Taylor Trammell led off the sixth with a walk, and Adam Frazier followed on a 3-2 pitch wrapping a two-run homerun inside Pesky Pole to tie the game. Trevor Story continued his torrid pace in the series, leading off the bottom of the sixth with a solo homerun to left centerfield into the monster seats to regain the lead. It was the fifth homer in the four games for Story (12 RBI). The score stayed the same until there was two outs in the top of the ninth, when Hansel Robles blew a save chance allowing a solo homerun to Eugenio Suarez to even it again 3-3. With the runner placed on second base in extra innings, Dylan Moore singled and Frazier did the same for a 4-3 Mariners lead. With one out and two on base, Jake Diekman escaped more trouble when he struckout both Ty France and J.P. Crawford swinging. In the bottom half, Christian Vazquez and Kike Hernandez both hit groundball singles to right to tie it 4-4. Rafael Devers made it three straight singles, and Vazquez tried to score from second but was thrown out at home by right fielder Dylan Moore that was upheld by a review. Seattle intentionally walked Bogaerts to load the bases, but Story wasn’t able to come through as he flied out to Moore. Cordero sent the home fans home happy when he launched one over the Boston bullpen in right on an 0-2 pitch for a grandslam to end it, his first homerun of the season.
Diekman (1-0) got the win in relief. Eovaldi went 6.2 innings allowing two runs on four hits with one walk and a career high 11 strikeouts. Hernandez and Jackie Bradley Jr. both had two hits, as Boston has won five straight games and eight of their last 10 improving to 19-22 after a 6-1 homestand. Frazier had three hits and France had two, as Seattle drops to 17-25. Gilbert went 7.0 innings allowing three runs on five hits. Andres Munoz (1-2) took the loss and was charged for the blown save by pitching the 10th inning. There has been 110 walkoff grandslams in extra innings in the history of the American League and National League, with the last two being by Red Sox players by Cordero on Sunday and Travis Shaw back on August 23, 2021. The Red Sox have a day off on Monday before opening up a three game road series in Chicago against the White Sox Tuesday night. Nick Pivetta (2-4, 4.22 ERA) gets the ball in the opener for Boston, against Dylan Cease (4-1, 3.09) for Chicago.
