Wonderfully wild Red Sox season gets another chaotic chapter in Miami

In the midst of a wild and unpredictable season for the Boston Red Sox, Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins marked the latest wacky chapter.

It was a night that began with four no-hit innings from Payton Tolle and had two lead changes in the 10th — one that came after the home-plate umpire took a ball to the mask, and another after a wild pitch on a strikeout.

The madness ended when Jarren Duran, who entered Tuesday’s game hitting .209, crushed a grand slam to center in the 11th inning for an eventful 7-3 win over the Marlins.

“It was a wild game, no doubt about it,” interim manager Chad Tracy told reporters afterward. “There was a lot of stuff going on both sides.”

In the top of the 10th, automatic runner catcher Connor Wong moved from second to third on a groundout off reliever Calvin Faucher. During the next at-bat, Faucher threw a 93 mph cutter straight to the mask of home-plate umpire David Rackley. The ball ricocheted to the backstop, and Wong scampered home to make it 3-2. Rackley stayed in the game after an injury delay.

Home plate umpire David Rackley will be on concussion protocol tomorrow morning: https://t.co/6VbYqIPE0D pic.twitter.com/FQFdunMZpl

— John Martinello (@martinello_john) August 26, 2026

Closer Aroldis Chapman had pitched back-to-back games and three of the last four days, so Boston turned to Wyatt Olds to close out the game in the 10th.

Olds, who made his big-league debut last week, navigated traffic throughout the inning and nearly stranded the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position after a nine-pitch battle with Javier Sanoja, getting him to swing-and-miss with two outs on an inside pitch. But the ball got away from Wong behind the plate, and the Marlins tied the score again.

You cannot make this up. pic.twitter.com/XEDEGtIgOj

— John Martinello (@martinello_john) August 26, 2026

Duran finally put an end to the chaos when the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out in the 11th, crushing his second career grand slam 412 feet to center field. Although it has been a rough season at the plate, Duran has hit .313 with a .912 OPS in his last nine games.

Boston scored its first two runs on two solo homers from Mickey Gasper in the second and sixth innings. Gasper has reached base in eight straight plate appearances.

The Red Sox are 73-59 and just two games back of the New York Yankees for the first wild-card spot. With one more game in Miami on Wednesday, the Red Sox head to New York to play the Yankees for four games this weekend.