Trevor Story commits two errors as Red Sox drop finale to Athletics, 5-3

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on Sep 18, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Wednesday night the Red Sox fought to the end and pulled out one of their biggest victories of the season, one that could have conceivably given them the kind of momentum they’d need to finish the year strong.

Instead they came out on Thursday afternoon and laid an egg.

The Red Sox suffered a discouraging 5-3 loss to the Athletics, who clinched the three-game series and handed Boston its eighth defeat in the last 13 games. Brayan Bello was hit hard early and struggled with his command, and Trevor Story had an uncharacteristically poor day on defense, committing two throwing errors that each came with two outs and allowed runs to score.

Not helping matters, the Cleveland Guardians polished off a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers. As a result the Red Sox lead for the last American League wild-card spot is down to 1.5 with nine games to play.

It was a bad time for Bello to deliver a bad outing.

The Red Sox right-hander got shelled out of the chute, allowing four straight hard-hit balls to start the game. Bello gave up a double, a two-run home run by Brent Rooker, another double and an RBI single by Tyler Soderstrom that gave the Athletics a quick 3-0 lead.

The Red Sox cut the deficit with a sacrifice fly by Masataka Yoshida in the first and a solo home run by David Hamilton in the second, but in the third Bello recorded two quick outs before losing his command. He walked back-to-back batters and then gave up another run on a slow ground ball to Story, which the shortstop threw away to make it 4-2.

Bello wound up finishing four innings. He was charged with four runs (three earned) on five hits, two walks and three strikeouts.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora instead went to Payton Tolle to face the top of the A’s lineup, and the rookie delivered in spades.

Echoing his magical MLB debut in late August, Tolle blew away the Athletics’ top hitters with three consecutive strikeouts. He sent down Butler, Rooker and Nick Kurtz, hitting 99.7 mph on the radar gun to fan the AL Rookie of the Year favorite.

That pitch was the fastest he’s ever recorded in his life.

Tolle escaped a men at the corners jam in the fifth to keep it a two-run deficit, but the Red Sox offense fell silent as the game went on. A’s starter J.T. Ginn retired 12 batters in a row between the third and sixth innings, and he finished with two runs allowed over six innings with five hits, a walk and three strikeouts.

Then the Red Sox shot themselves in the foot again in the seventh, when Story committed his second throwing error of the game with two outs to allow a run to score from third.

Story stepped up at the plate his next time up in the eighth, powering a solo home run to dead center field to make it a 5-3 game. It was his 25th homer of the season, making him the second Red Sox player in history to record 25 home runs, 30 stolen bases and 90 RBIs in a season. Jacoby Ellsbury accomplished the feat in 2011.

But other than that the Red Sox offense couldn’t get anything going. Outside of Story’s home run the Red Sox only had one baserunner from the fourth inning on, and Nate Eaton’s seventh-inning single went for naught when he was immediately erased on a double play.

The club went silently in the bottom of the ninth, with pinch hitters Carlos Narvaez, Rob Refsnyder and Nick Sogard going down 1-2-3.

Now the Red Sox will look to regroup as they embark on their last road trip of the season. Next up, the Tampa Bay Rays.