CLEVELAND — With two outs and two strikes in a game-swinging seventh inning Sunday afternoon, Guardians reliever Tim Herrin did exactly what he wanted to do against Wilyer Abreu: fastball, outside edge of the plate, just nipping the strike zone.
It could have been — should have been — an inning-ending strikeout, maintaining a narrow Cleveland lead. But umpire Austin Jones deemed it a ball. The Guardians had used all of their ball-strike challenges, so they had to stand there and take it. Abreu jogged to first base with a bases-loaded walk that forced in the tying run.
Granted new life in the inning and game, the Red Sox took full advantage, turning it into a six-run rally on the way to a 9-4 win.
Masataka Yoshida had the go-ahead hit, a two-run single to center. Isiah Kiner-Falefa added an RBI single, stretching his hit streak to seven games. And Caleb Durbin brought in two more with the first triple of his career.
“You got to tie the game before you can take the lead, so those were really quality at-bats,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “We keep stacking on after that to get into a comfortable lead.”
The Sox snagged their first consecutive victories and first series win since May 18-20, when they swept the Royals. It was also their first win in a series rubber game since April 26, Tracy’s debut.
They are 25-33 heading into an offday Monday.
Everybody in the starting lineup had at least one hit and at least one run or RBI.
Aroldis Chapman tossed a scoreless ninth inning. Even though it wasn’t a save situation, Tracy wanted to get him into the game because he hadn’t pitched since May 20.
The game turned in that big seventh, during which Cleveland (34-27) used three relievers. Abreu grinded through a seven-pitch plate appearance to earn the key walk, the last pitch of which grinded the Guardians’ gears.
Catcher Austin Hedges took a step toward the dugout, thinking the inning was over, then cringed with his whole body when Jones called ball four. Somebody from the dugout started to chirp; Jones motioned with his hand that the pitch was outside.
Stuart Fairchild in the fifth and José Ramírez in the sixth had challenged ball-strike calls and were wrong, so their team was out for the rest of regulation.
“It’s frustrating, but that’s on us,” Hedges said. “Shouldn’t have lost our challenges. It’s what they’re there for, and we’ve got to take accountability and be better at it.”
Jones had an eventful day behind the plate, with the clubs combining for eight challenges. The Red Sox got four pitches overturned — their best day deploying the automated ball-strike challenge system since Tracy took the job, he said.
“There are times where you’ve got to be confident in what you see and overturn calls that you know are egregious,” he said. “But if you got one [challenge available] late, it’s helpful. I’ve seen that happen.”
It proved to be the last twist in a serious seesaw of a game. The Red Sox and Guardians totaled eight plays that tied the score or gave a team a lead.
The early and middle innings featured lots of back and forth, with neither Red Sox lefthander Ranger Suarez (five innings, four runs) nor Guardians righthander Tanner Bibee (six innings, three runs) enjoying a peak performance.
“Ten strikeouts is good, but four runs — I’d rather prevent the runs from coming in,” Suarez said through an interpreter.
Jarren Duran, the first batter of the game, launched a home run to right field for an instant lead. It was his ninth long ball of May, tied for second most in the American League.
In the bottom of the second, Suarez more than gave it back, walking a batter and hitting another to help Cleveland load the bases with no outs. Hedges, a defensive specialist, came through with a two-run single for a 2-1 advantage.
Marcelo Mayer singled and Connor Wong doubled to open the fifth; both scored for a fleeting 3-2 margin.
The Guardians took it back with a two-run rally in the bottom of the inning. The key moment: Left fielder Yoshida could not track a routine fly ball off the bat of Ramírez. That drove in one run and set up another.
“You can’t catch what you can’t see,” Tracy said. “He didn’t look like he saw it right off the bat. He was coming our direction; the ball was going towards the pole. So it stinks, but it happens.”
Yoshida said through an interpreter: “I completely lost that one.”
He made up for it with the huge hit.
“I know I put us in that bad spot right there,” he said. “But I’m glad I was able to come through in that situation and help the team win.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.