BOSTON — The Red Sox don’t look flummoxed often these days. But even Major League Baseball’s coolest customers this summer get overheated sometimes. That looked to be the case on a stiflingly steamy Thursday night at Fenway as inning after inning, the pair of Sox played tug-of-war at America’s oldest ballpark and the home team struggled to come out on top. Chicago took five leads, two courtesy ...

Wilyer Abreu of the Boston Red Sox reacts after hitting an RBI single to tie the game against the Chicago White Sox during the ninth inning at Fenway Park on Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Boston.

Brian Fluharty/Getty Images North America/TNS

BOSTON — The Red Sox don’t look flummoxed often these days.

But even Major League Baseball’s coolest customers this summer get overheated sometimes. That looked to be the case on a stiflingly steamy Thursday night at Fenway as inning after inning, the pair of Sox played tug-of-war at America’s oldest ballpark and the home team struggled to come out on top.

Chicago took five leads, two courtesy of former Red Sox top prospect Chase Meidroth’s first career multi-homer game. But Boston kept answering, and finally in the bottom of the 13th, Caleb Durbin walked it off to sweep the visiting White Sox out of town, 12-11.

Ranger Suarez’s start lasted just three innings, but his portion of the game required 70 pitches and saw the White Sox take a 4-0 lead. He was done in by a 42-pitch third that featured Meidroth’s first of two two-run homers in the contest.

Suarez allowed four runs, three earned, on three hits, with two walks and three strikeouts. He threw 41 of his 70 pitches for strikes.

Thus began a long night for a Boston bullpen already preemptively taxed by virtue of Thursday being game No. 3 of a 16-game stretch without an off-day. The first of eight Red Sox relievers to enter was Greg Weissert, who struggled through a six-batter top of the fourth that yielded another White Sox run.

Boston batters went 1-2-3 in the first and second against Chicago’s trade deadline acquisition Luis Castillo. But the longtime Seattle Mariners star could not hold the Red Sox down for long. Connor Wong turned on a 2-2 slider in the third, and it soared just high enough to reach the left-field end of the Green Monster seats for a two-run homer.

Back-to-back one-out singles by Durbin and Masataka Yoshida put runners on the corners for Andruw Monasterio’s RBI double, and Anthony Seigler’s two-run double, which tied the game in the fourth.

Castillo’s night was over after five innings and 71 pitches (42 for strikes). His White Sox debut included five earned runs on six hits, including Wong’s homer, one walk and five strikeouts.

The Red Sox came all the way back four times, only for the game to get away again. The first was an uncharacteristically chaotic fifth inning by Justin Slaten, who worked himself in and nearly out of a jam, only to bungle the escape. Pinch-hitter Andrew Benintendi and shortstop Colson Montgomery greeted the righty reliever with back-to-back singles, putting runners on the corners with no one out.

Slaten recovered with a strikeout for catcher Joey Bart and got a first-pitch pop-out from pinch-hitter Tristan Peters. But when former Red Sox first-round pick Braden Montgomery hit a shallow pop-up back to Slaten, the pitcher’s throw to first was a bouncer wide of the base that allowed one earned run and one unearned run to score.

Boston again yanked the game back. Durbin greeted ex-Red Sox reliever Jordan Hicks, of last year’s infamous Rafael Devers trade, with a double. Durbin jammed the same left pinky he dislocated on June 24, as he slid headfirst into second base. He remained down on the ground, grimacing as he examined and prodded the digit, then got up and prepared to run. Yoshida drove Durbin in with a double of his own, which brought the Red Sox back within a run before Seigler’s high fly-ball to left landed in left-fielder Sam Antonacci’s glove to end the inning.

Red Sox trade deadline addition Erik Miller pitched two scoreless innings, working around three total baserunners. However, the southpaw’s scoreless seventh included a hit-by-pitch that fractured the fifth metacarpal in Bart’s left hand, a brutal blow for the White Sox, as the catcher was one of their deadline acquisitions.

Tyron Guerrero, Miller and Jovani Morán combined for four scoreless frames while their Red Sox teammates failed to score when given generous chances from the visiting pitchers. Right-hander Grant Taylor began the bottom of the seventh by plunking Wong and walking leadoff man Nick Sogard, but the former advanced no further than third.

Boston put two men on in eighth, as well. Jarren Duran reached on a two-out throwing error by Meidroth, and Seigler followed with a single, but the White Sox challenged successfully and was Duran was out advancing to third.

Trailing by a run in the bottom of the ninth, Wong led off with a double off the Monster. Pinch-runner Eli White advanced to third when Sogard executed a perfect sacrifice bunt, then watched Ceddanne Rafaela strike out.

It was all down to Wilyer Abreu, who had homered in a career-high three consecutive games before Thursday. As is so often the case during this stunning summer turnaround, a Red Sox batter tried, not to go yard, but to simply provide keep the line moving. Abreu shot a single straight through the wide-open middle infield, and White jogged home to tie the game.

Another successful Chicago challenge caught Abreu stealing second, and the pair of Sox entered extra innings. New catcher Jake Rogers crouched behind the dish as Aroldis Chapman took the mound for the top of the 10th as was quickly taken deep by Meidroth.

Abreu began the bottom of the 10th as the automatic runner on second. Right-hander Trevor Richards got a quick popout from Durbin, then walked Yoshida.

It was fourth-inning déjà vu all over again as Monasterio doubled to score a run. Richards intentionally walked Duran to load the bases, then gave up the tying run on a sacrifice fly by Seigler. Richards walked Rogers before forcing inning No. 11 by getting Sogard to ground into a force-out.

The White Sox took their fourth lead of the night, 10-9, on a wild pitch by Garrett Whitlock and sacrifice fly by Colson Montgomery in the 11th.

With Brayan Bello the last man in the Boston bullpen and only two days removed from a three-inning appearance in Tuesday’s series opener, the Red Sox were under the gun in the bottom of the 11th. Again they tied but failed to walk it off; through 11 innings they were 7 for 20 with runners in scoring position, and left 11 men on base.

Bello’s lack of rest showed immediately. Peters led off with a single, which moved automatic runner Drew Romo to third, and Antonacci’s single put the White Sox in front for the fifth time. Meidroth reached on a single, and Bello intentionally walked slugger Munetaka Murakami to load the bases with two outs before escaping further damage.

Thus, the Red Sox went to the bottom of the 12th, down by a run once again. A sac-fly by Rogers tied the game for the fifth time before the inning turned over.

The 13th time was the charm. Bello pitched a scoreless top of the inning, holding the White Sox scoreless for the first time since the ninth, and Durbin was the hero in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single.