Zack Kelly inherited a bases-loaded mess in the top of the seventh with no outs and his club ahead by just a run, 4-3. Kelly quickly fell behind, 3-0, to Gleyber Torres.
“Maybe I was trying to be a little bit too careful,” said Kelly.
Competition and resolve yielded his response. Kelly pounded the strike zone with a fastball and a cutter before getting Torres to chase a low-and-away sweeper.
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“I got that fastball in there and it’s like, ‘Alright, let’s go back. Now we’re back in the zone. Keep pounding it,’ ” said Kelly.
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The next batter, Jose Trevino, fanned, too, chasing consecutive sweepers. The 36,718 fans on-hand, realizing their club might wiggle out of the jam that started with back-to-back singles by Alex Verdugo and Aaron Judge followed by Dom Smith’s throwing error at first, rose from their seats.
Kelly got D.J. LeMahieu to line out to center and bellowed toward his dugout, flaunting the raw emotion that followed success and fervor.
“I don’t remember,” said Kelly with a smile when asked what was going through his mind after the third out. “It was a lot, a lot of adrenaline. I was glad I could get out of that situation for the team, keep us ahead by one, and get the guys back in the dugout swinging it.”
The Sox did swing it in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three runs which helped them take two of three from the top team in baseball after doing the same during the week to the National League-leading Phillies.
Kutter Crawford was exceptional, tossing six innings and matching a career high with nine strikeouts.
One of his few mishaps came in the first inning when Aaron Judge launched a cutter left over the heart of the plate over the Green Monster seats.
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Crawford then retired 12 of the next 13 batters he faced before Trevino belted a solo shot to left to open up the sixth. Anthony Volpe reached on a single and ultimately scored on a passed ball, but Crawford kept the Sox in front, 4-3, by striking out Judge for the second straight time.
“It’s progress for me in the right direction,” said Crawford, who allowed just four baserunners. “Obviously, I gave up some runs and some homers and whatnot. But my ability to attack the strike zone from the first pitch to the last pitch is a big step.”
The Sox offense stayed on attack, too, stealing nine bags, a franchise record. David Hamilton had four of them, becoming just the third player in franchise history to steal four-plus bases in a game. Jarren Duran was next in line with two steals, finishing the contest 2 for 4 with a run scored and a walk.
“Hamilton carried the load there,” said Duran. “But I’m glad I got a couple. It shows when we can run the bases like we can, it does a lot for the team and it puts us in a really good spot.”
The running and competitive at-bats put Yankees starter Marcus Stroman in a bind. He walked four and needed 102 pitches to finish five innings, allowing four runs. It was Hamilton who scored the last of them; following a single, Hamilton stole second and third, and came home on Rafael Devers’s sacrifice fly.
Nevertheless, for all the motion on the bases, the Sox had just a 4-1 lead. The Trevino homer was Cora’s reminder of just how much heavy lifting this win required.
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“There’s nothing better than a home run in this game, and right away they were back in the game,” said Cora. “We did all that stuff and it was a 4-2 game. But it’s fun. You could see in their dugout that they were just trying to contain us, and at one point we just kept going. We’re not gonna stop.”
The Sox (37-35) know they aren’t a home-run hitting club, especially with Triston Casas still on the shelf. So they have relied on their legs, stacking the speed together with Ceddanne Rafaela in the 9-hole followed by leadoff man Duran and then Hamilton.
They’ll run into outs sometimes, but it’s their identity for now. The good and the bad. The wins and losses.
When the lights dimmed at Fenway Sunday night, a competitive win took its place, front and center.
“Those are the situations you dream about,” said Kelly.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him @byJulianMack.
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