The Boston Red Sox Sunday, July 30, 2017 * The Boston Globe Sandy Leon’s dash home gives Red Sox wild win Julian Benbow From a pair of errors by two new faces brought in to inject life into the Red Sox offense, to a pair of walks and passed balls by arms coming out of an over-extended bullpen, to key hits by a Kansas City Royals lineup that’s come up with plenty on their recent hot streak, the way the sixth inning unraveled felt like a microcosm of a frustrating month. But the rally late-game they put together to come away with a 9-8 walk-off win in the 10th inning crystallized the all-hands-on-deck mentality that’s allowed them to keep their heads above water despite a difficult July. Newcomer Eduardo Nunez had a pair of big swings with two solo homers, but with runners on second and third in the 10th, a ground ball in the middle of the infield was his biggest swing of the night. He bounced a soft ground ball to Edwin Escobar at short. Escobar dived to make the play, rolled over, and made the throw still seated to get the out at first. At third, Sandy Leon froze close to the bag watching the play unfold. He broke late, but narrowly dodged the outstretched glove of Royals catcher Salvador Perez to tag home and give the Sox the win. “He made a very instinctive play, and he made a great, athletic play,” third base coach Brian Butterfield said. “I know that seems kind of odd, he’s this big, strong guy, but that was a very athletic slide, and it won us the game. “We normally wouldn’t make a break toward home like that, so he obviously saw something that made him break, and I’m glad he did. I didn’t want to stay out there any longer.” The win was the Sox’s sixth walk-off of the season, twice as many as they had last season and the most since 2014. It also kept them a half-game behind the first-place Yankees in the division. Despite struggles on offense and off-field drama circling the clubhouse, they’ve gone 12-13 in July. “There’s things that we’ve certainly got to get better at,” said Butterfield. “We’re doing some good things, and I think some of that is overlooked, especially when we lose a game or lose a couple in a row. I think the coaching staff is pleased with some of the things we’re doing, but there’s also some things we’ve got to get better. “We’re 100-plus games into the season. There are some mistakes we’re making that shouldn’t be made. We’ve got to clean it up. We’ve got to tighten things up because everything is getting a little more and more important. “It’s gut-check time now. We’ve got to make sure that we mind our p’s and q’s. I think that they’re preparing well. I think that they prepare well physically and mentally to compete, but in-game situations, we’ve definitely got to get better at.” An offense searching for itself in recent weeks manufactured the runs they needed to stay alive. Down 8-6 in the seventh, Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez worked walks to start the inning. A passed ball moved Benintendi to third, and they took advantage when Jackie Bradley Jr. shot a sacrifice fly to right to trim the deficit to one. Christian Vazquez led off the eighth with a single to center, and Brock Holt came in to pinch run. A wild pitch moved him to second, and a single by Rafael Devers pushed him to third. Mookie Betts lifted a fly ball to center to score Holt and tie the game. For the ninth time this season, Craig Kimbrel came into a tie game. He gave up a single to Salvador Perez to start the ninth but got a lift Sandy Leon caught Perez’s pinch runner trying to steal second. He went on to strike out Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas and Brandon Moss. In 9.2 innings when he’s entered in a tie game, Kimbrel has a 0.00 ERA and 17 strikeouts with just one walk. For the fifth time this month — and the fourth time since the all-star break — the Sox went to extra innings. This time, they had to weather a tug of war with the hottest team in baseball. They jumped out to an early 2-0 lead thanks to an RBI triple by Vazquez in the second and Nunez’s solo homer in the third. They gave it back in the fourth when Eduardo Rodriguez gave up an RBI single to Whit Merrifield and a three-run homer to Lorenzo Cain. They even it up again in the bottom of the fourth, with Vazquez delivering an RBI double and Devers lining an RBI single to center. Then they reclaimed the lead in the fifth when Nunez homered for the second time, and Bradley scored on an error by Moustakas. A messy sixth inning in which the Royals scored four runs threatened to put an end to the back-and-forth, but the Sox rallied. They’re now 9-3 in extra-inning games. “I think any time you’re in extra innings, wins can give you a boost,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “Given the stretch of games that we’ve come through, we lose a tough one in the 13th inning out in Seattle, we’ve had our fair share of games that have extended deep into a night. And to win this with the see-saw battle that it was — take the lead give it back multiple times — this was a good win.” After Rodriguez ran up 107 pitches in four innings of work, Farrell had to call on six arms out of the bullpen. From the sixth inning on, Robby Scott, Heath Hembree, Kimbrel and Matt Barnes combined to give the Sox five shutout innings, with five strikeouts and four hits allowed. “Guys are on call,” Farrell said. “They’re ready, they know their roles as those innings are approaching.” Nunez walked off the field with a face full of baby powder cream and a back soaked in ice water. It was Nunez’s second career multi-home run game. The Sox were last in the American League (27th in baseball) in homers coming into the night. The two blasts already put him two shy of Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts for the second-most on the team this month. “Everything is going well,” Nunez said. “That’s easy to say, but yeah, I feel good. I feel good. It’s exciting, for one day being here, to help the team win and you have something to put in the game to win games. I think that’s a good feeling.” Before the game, Farrell navigated some nagging injuries, keeping Pedroia out of the lineup to rest his left knee. Originally, Xander Bogaerts, who had been dealing with groin tightness and the lingering effects of being hit by a pitch earlier this month, was out of the lineup, but he played through it going 2 for 4 with a walk. Butterfield said the team would have to push through the season’s dog days. “Honestly, I don’t want to hear anybody on our club talk about fatigue,” he said. “We don’t have time for that. Everything is too important now. We’ve got to step forward and be tough. You’re going to feel fatigue, but you’ve got to let that adrenaline take over as soon as that first pitch is thrown. You can be fatigued during your preparation. You may be fatigued during the anthem. But as soon as they’re getting ready to throw that first pitch, we’re ready to compete.” Sox’ pitching staff standing by slumping hitters Julian Benbow While the Red Sox offense has tried to snap out of a monthlong funk, the pitching staff has shouldered the burden of keeping the team in games. Coming into their Saturday night matchup against the Royals, the Sox were hitting .239 as a team in July, slugging just .350 and averaging just 4.3 runs. Meanwhile, the Sox pitching staff had a 3.16 ERA, holding opponents to a .227 batting average. But while the offense sorts through its problems, manager John Farrell said he’s seen the staff stay positive. “What I’m seeing right now is a pitching staff that is rallying around our offensive group,” Farrell said. “The support that’s there, the talk that’s in the dugout, the encouragement, that’s being a good teammate.” Despite putting together far and away their best month of the season in terms of ERA (3.19), Sox starters are just 8-9 in July. Run support has been slim. The Sox lineup has scored three runs or fewer 12 times this month, getting shut out three times. No one’s been on the short end of the stick more than 2016 AL Cy Young winner Rick Porcello. He’s gotten two runs or fewer in 12 outings, and he’s lost all of them despite having a 3.86 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. (Oddly, when he’s gotten between three to five runs, he has a 7.15 ERA). He’s left the mound with no run support in 10 of his 22 starts this season.