Red Sox outlast White Sox in 13-inning marathon at Fenway

This is what baseball is supposed to be. Messy, exhausting, absolutely ridiculous, and completely unforgettable. On Thursday night at Fenway Park, the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox played 13 innings of baseball that will haunt White Sox fans for weeks and cement itself in Red Sox lore as the kind of game that defines September runs. Final score: 12-11, Red Sox. But those numbers don’t come close to telling the real story.

The White Sox came to Boston ready for a fight. Chase Meidroth, the Chicago slugger who clearly didn’t get the memo about the 2026 version of Fenway Park, homered twice, driving in four runs and looking like he personally wanted to drag his team to victory. Sam Antonacci chipped in three hits and two RBIs. The White Sox batted around in multiple innings and built what should have been a comfortable lead. They played winning baseball. And it still wasn’t enough.

This is the kind of game that exposes coaching and roster construction. Chicago had chances. Multiple chances. They scored 11 runs, which is typically enough to win any baseball game on planet Earth. But the Red Sox, trailing 11-9 heading into the bottom of the ninth, refused to accept defeat. Wilyer Abreu’s game-tying single in the ninth tied things up and sent this marathon to extra innings.

Red Sox Refuse to Die

Here’s what separates champions from pretenders: resilience. Anthony Seigler, the Red Sox’s catcher, went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, including two crucial runs on a fourth-inning double. Masataka Yoshida drove in another run. Connor Wong contributed a two-run homer. These weren’t flashy performances, but they were timely ones. The Red Sox played small-ball baseball when they needed to, sacrificing runners into scoring position in the late innings and trusting their lineup to come through.

Caleb Durbin, a player you probably haven’t heard of unless you follow Red Sox farm reports, delivered the ultimate moment. In the 13th inning, with runners in scoring position, Durbin singled to left field. The game ended. Fenway erupted. And the White Sox, who had desperately clawed their way to 11 runs, went home empty-handed.

Erick Fedde’s Nightmare Start

Let’s not bury the lede here: Erick Fedde lasted 0.1 innings for Chicago and gave up no earned runs, but the damage to the White Sox’s pitching depth was already done. This bullpen marathon went 13 innings, and by the time Boston’s batters got their ninth-inning opportunity, Chicago’s relief corps was exhausted. Brayan Bello, meanwhile, earned the win despite pitching only 2.0 innings early. That’s baseball in 2026, apparently.

The White Sox had every reason to win Thursday night. They outhit the Red Sox, they scored 11 runs, and they had control of the game for stretches. But baseball isn’t played in stretches. It’s played over nine innings, 10 innings, 13 innings if necessary. The Red Sox showed more hunger, more desperation, and ultimately more talent down the stretch. That’s why they’re Red Sox and the White Sox went home wondering what could have been.

Sometimes the better team wins. Thursday night, the team that wanted it more did.