Justin Turner homers late, but Red Sox lose to Giants 4-3 in 11th inning

For nine years Justin Turner tormented the San Francisco Giants, making countless plays at his rivals’ expense while helping the Los Angeles Dodgers to eight NL West titles and a World Series championship.

The fans in San Francisco haven’t forgotten, booing the former Dodger every time he came to the plate, but if they hoped to get in Turner’s head or throw him off his game, it didn’t work.

After coming through with the game-tying two-run single late in Saturday night’s loss, Turner delivered in the clutch again Sunday with a go-ahead two-run home run in the eighth inning. Unfortunately, just like Saturday, the bullpen couldn’t protect the lead and the Red Sox ultimately lost 4-3 on an 11th inning RBI single by Joc Pederson, who gave the Giants their second straight walk-off win.

Turner’s big shot was the only meaningful offense the Red Sox got all day, and after failing to score the automatic runner in the top of the 10th and 11th the club was asking for trouble.

It was particularly frustrating given how badly San Francisco struggled in key spots itself.

As was the case on Saturday, the Giants had the Red Sox pitching staff on its heels early and often but couldn’t land the knockout punch. San Francisco was only 2 for 16 with runners in scoring position entering the 11th and despite Boston’s continued offensive ineptitude their failure in the clutch kept the game within reach.

The Giants’ first big chance came in the second when they loaded the bases with no outs against Red Sox opener Brennan Bernardino. John Schreiber came on to try and clean up the mess, and though he allowed a run to score on an RBI groundout by Casey Schmitt, he was able to escape without further incident after Brandon Crawford lined out to center and Blake Sabol was doubled up at second to end the inning.

San Francisco later stretched its lead to 2-0 in the sixth after Schmitt singled and shortly after advanced to third on a fielding error by Rafael Devers. He came in to score on a Wilmer Flores RBI single, but bulk reliever Chris Murphy got two groundouts to get out of the jam.

On the other side, Giants opener Scott Alexander pitched 1.2 perfect innings to start things off and then handed the ball to former Blue Jays starter Ross Stripling, who shut down the Red Sox over the next 4.1 innings. The Red Sox effectively got nothing done until the top of the seventh, when Adam Duvall muscled a solo home run out to left field to make it 2-1.

A promising rally began afterwards when Christian Arroyo singled and Alex Verdugo walked to put two men on with one out, but then disaster struck. Triston Casas hit a sinking blooper to center that Giants centerfielder Luis Matos was just barely able to reach, and Arroyo was caught just far enough off the second base bag that Matos doubled him up to end the inning.

“It’s inexcusable, there’s really no other way to put it. I have to be better, there’s a lot of facets of the game right now I need to be better in,” Arroyo said afterwards. “J.T. picked me up later, we couldn’t come out with a win, but it’s just an inexcusable play.”

It seemed in the moment like that could have been it, but the game had a few more twists and turns in store.

The Giants once again failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity in the seventh after Josh Winckowski drew a huge inning-ending double play with two on and one out. Then Jarren Duran led off the eighth with a double and moved to third on a Rob Refsynder groundout, setting the table for Turner to potentially tie the game.

He did better than that.

The Red Sox lead wound up being short lived, as the Giants responded to tie it up in the bottom of the eighth on a Michael Conforto single, Matos double and a Patrick Bailey RBI groundout. Neither team could score in the ninth, sending the game to extras, and after the Red Sox put themselves in a tough spot by failing to score the automatic runner in the top of the 10th, Chris Martin pitched around some extensive traffic to keep the game alive.

Unfortunately the Red Sox, they couldn’t pull it off again in the 11th. Newly acquired right-hander Mauricio Llovera loaded the bases after hitting Schmitt with a pitch and allowing a single to Crawford, and Pederson wrapped things up with the game-winning single to right.

Following the game Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced Nick Pivetta will get the start Monday, saying they need Pivetta back in that role for now to help reset the bullpen. Cora also said that left-handed reliever Joely Rodriguez is dealing with a hip issue and will be placed on the injured list.

The Red Sox fall to 56-49 with the loss and now stand 2.5 games back of Toronto and Houston in the AL Wild Card standings. Next up is a three-game series in Seattle, during which the club will learn who’s coming and who’s going ahead of Tuesday’s 6 p.m. trade deadline.