Tyler O’Neill hit two home runs for the Boston Red Sox in a 7-5 victory on Saturday night, which led to the Chicago White Sox suffering their 111th loss.
Chicago’s early lead, thanks to Andrew Vaughn’s two-run homer in the first inning, quickly faded as they fell behind 7-2 by the fifth inning and ended up losing their 19th consecutive series.
The White Sox (32-111) are now nine losses away from matching the 1962 New York Mets for the most losses since 1900 and are on track to end the season with a record of 36-126. The 1899 Cleveland Spiders hold the record for most losses at 20-134. Chicago has lost 14 of its last 15 games and 44 of its last 49.
Rob Refsnyder hit an RBI grounder, and O’Neill gave Boston the lead with a two-run homer in the first inning off Garrett Crochet (6-11), who has not won a game since June 7.
“Poor execution and didn’t command the fastball,” Crochet said.
O’Neill also hit a home run that cleared the Green Monster and went out of Fenway Park off Enyel De Los Santos in the fifth inning for his 27th home run of the season. This was his 11th career game with multiple home runs and his sixth this year.
“I feel that I’ve been taking good at-bats lately. For me, it’s about controlling the strike zone and working a walk when I can. You’re not going to feel your best every day, but I’m trusting my preparation right now,” O’Neill said. “I’m sending the barrel where I want to.”
Boston (72-70) won their second game in a row after a five-game losing streak and is four games behind Minnesota (76-66) for the final AL wild card spot.
“We talked about it two days ago: you lose ground, you lose a day,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.
Trevor Story went 1 for 4 with an RBI single in his first game since April 5 after recovering from a shoulder injury that required surgery and caused him to miss 133 games.
“We didn’t think I would be here at this point,” he said. “It feels like forever ago when I was fielding questions about it being a season-ending injury. Just so grateful for the opportunity to do it.”
Connor Wong contributed with an RBI double in the first inning, while Romy González had three hits and stole three bases.
Kenley Jansen recorded three outs on just seven pitches to earn his 26th save in 30 opportunities, marking the 446th save of his major league career. Jansen has been dealing with inflammation in his lat muscle.
Boston is now 4-2 against the White Sox this season, securing the season series for the first time since 2019.
Cooper Criswell (6-4) gave up two runs and six hits over five innings in his first start since being pulled from a game at Detroit after four perfect innings and 52 pitches. Red Sox manager Alex Cora had opted to bring in left-hander Rich Hill, who then lost a one-run lead in a 4-1 defeat.
“There was some traffic out there, but the defense did a terrific job behind him,” Cora said about Criswell. “It was what we needed.”
Andrew Benintendi hit a three-run homer in the seventh inning against Chase Shugart, marking his 16th home run of the season.
Boston has a record of 35-13 when wearing their yellow alternate jerseys, including 20-9 since the start of 2023 and 8-6 this season.
