BOSTON, Aug. 7 -- In the bottom of the 13th inning, with the game tied and a crowd of 37,082 having sat through four hours of baseball that had already exhausted most of the ways a lead can be surrendered, Caleb Durbin hit a pitch from Erick Fedde into center field. Nick Sogard, placed at second base as the automatic runner, slid headfirst into home plate. The Red Sox won 12-11, their eighth straight game, and Durbin stood at first base looking at the dugout.

"Relief," he said afterward. "We really wanted that one. I wanted that one bad, obviously we wanted that one. It's just kind of one of those where you hope the ball falls your way, and we were able to pull that one out."

The game that ended Thursday night at Fenway Park was, by nea...