The (latest) Boston Red Sox winning streak stops at nine.

On Saturday, the Athletics played the spoiler at Fenway Park, raining on what has at times seemed like a summerlong parade in Boston. Their 7-3 win over the Red Sox denied Boston its second double-digit winning streak of the season.

The Red Sox tried to muster some late magic, which has become a bit of a hallmark of this wild, never-say-die Boston season. They put runners on second and third with two outs in the eighth, but the push ended when Jarren Duran struck out. Then, in the ninth, Boston strung together three hits and a walk, but Eli White lined out to center field to end the game.

The A’s have snapped their 9-game losing streak and have also ended the Red Sox 9-game winning streak! pic.twitter.com/WTfUUg5gLy

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) August 8, 2026

“I think that’s our identity, I think that’s who we are as a team,” Jahmai Jones said, “is, you know, it’s the ninth inning. We’ve seen a lot of comebacks for us, we’ve seen a lot of late-inning rallies. We’re never going to give up until game’s over.”

Did interim manager Chad Tracy have hope? Yep, he sure did.

“It was a great effort to get the tying run to the plate and give ourselves a shot,” Tracy said afterward. “It was awesome. … That ball was smoked by Eli, and if you get another one on there you’ve got the winning run at the plate, so it was a good effort.”

Despite the loss, Chad Tracy was fired up that the Red Sox had a chance to tie the game on the last swing of the game 👀

presented by @WBMasonCo 🎙️ pic.twitter.com/K1pVzg9hJk

— NESN (@NESN) August 8, 2026

Boston out jumped to an early 2-0 lead Saturday when Andruw Monasterio’s single in the first drove in Jones and Caleb Durbin. Left-hander Gage Jump kept the Red Sox at bay for the remainder of his six-inning, 11-strikeout effort.

The Red Sox had cruised to a 13-1 win on Friday night, rolling to that victory one night after rallying five times against the White Sox in a 13-inning marathon.

Even with Saturday’s loss, the Red Sox (64-52) have won 11 of their past 13. They are 32-6 since June 25 — a run that also included a franchise-record 15-game winning streak in July.

CHICAGO — Leaning against the wall in a United Center tunnel Saturday afternoon, Sophie Cunningham reflected on the emerging truth of her existence: Sometimes she seeks the spotlight, and the rest of the time, the spotlight seeks her.

“Another day, another dollar, welcome to my life, boys and girls,” the Indiana Fever guard declared.

It should surprise no one, of course, that Cunningham took a hard foul in a 90-86 win over the Chicago Sky and then elected to give as good as she got. The arm-to-the-neck she absorbed from the Sky’s DiJonai Carrington on a first-quarter layup attempt, which resulted in Carrington’s ejection, was just the start.

“From my point of view, I mean, clearly I think it was unnecessary,” Cunningham said after the game. “I’ve never really spoken to her and have no beef with her. But I guess she has some pent-up stuff. So get your s— off. That’s fine. I can take it.”

Cunningham immediately popped up, pushed Carrington and was restrained by teammate Makalya Timpson while exchanging words. (“I’m not going to let anyone just do that to me, I think everyone knows that,” Cunningham said.) Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 foul, but Cunningham wasn’t hit with a technical foul for the shove because officials “deemed her reaction to the severity of the contact to be acceptable,” per a pool report distributed after the game.

DiJonai Carrington was assessed a Flagrant 2 and was ejected from the game after this play. pic.twitter.com/WRapu4lqHX

— ESPN (@espn) August 8, 2026

Shortly after heading to the locker room, a post appeared on Carrington’s Threads account tagging the Fever with the phrase “WHITE PRIVILEGE.” (Carrington was not available for comment Saturday.)

“Oh yeah, we saw it,” Cunningham said. “I think the league is taking care of that. I mean, this has nothing to do with race. Last year I did the same thing, and I got kicked out, as I deserved to be kicked out. There’s no reason to even play that card.”

While Fever coach Stephanie White said after the game that she didn’t believe Carrington connected with Cunningham’s neck intentionally, Cunningham drew a straight line to her own infamous ejection against the Connecticut Sun late last season — and not necessarily to the backlash against her recently published comments regarding transgender athletes.

In that 2025 game, Cunningham chased down guard Jacy Sheldon, now a member of the Sky, on a breakaway and wound up applying a headlock to Sheldon in the ensuing dust-up. The disconnect for Cunningham is that Carrington wasn’t even a member of the Sky last year.

“She has no reason to be doing any of that,” Cunningham said. “Like, I don’t even know her. She wasn’t even on the team when all that was going on. But I do think when people play the Fever, we’re nationally televised, there’s a lot of eyes on us. People just want attention. And that’s her just trying to get attention.”

The ruckus around Cunningham does not appear to be dissipating, in any event. There were more protests and counterprotests regarding transgender athletes around the United Center on Saturday, and Cunningham checked into the game to a mixed chorus of cheers and boos in the first quarter.

Not long after, she had not one but two teammates turning her away from another conflagration in the wake of Carrington’s foul — first Timpson, then veteran Monique Billings.

“She’s like, ‘Quit being messy,’” Cunningham said of Billings. “I’m like, ‘You’re right, Mo. This is time for me to be better.’”