Red Sox reactions: Caleb Durbin’s homer in the eighth pushes streak to 14 straight

BOSTON — Instant reactions from the Red Sox’ 6-5 win over the Baltimore Orioles Monday night at Fenway:

1) Two hot teams — something had to give. The Red Sox, winners of 13 in a row, met the Baltimore Orioles, winners of seven straight, Monday night. With the game tied at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth, Caleb Durbin clubbed a solo homer onto the Monster seats to gave the Sox their 14th consecutive victory, 6-5. The Sox had tied it in the bottom of the seventh on a run-scoring single from Ceddanne Rafaela. For the Sox, it was their 19th win in their last 21 games.

2) Payton Tolle isn’t out there trying to trick anyone. The rookie lefty simply rears back and challenges hitters with his fastball. Most of the time, he wins. Sometimes, he’ll sink it or cut it; most of the time, he humps up on the four-seamer and tries to throw it past hitters. He set the tone early Monday night, with seven strikeouts in the first four innings. The only detriment, of course, is that those at-bats tend to drive up his pitch count.

3) All of that said, it was strange to see Tolle come unglued in the sixth when the Orioles scored twice — first to tie it, then to go ahead. With two outs and his pitch count climbing, Tolle was a strike away from getting out of a mess. But the Orioles suddenly took a very aggressive approach with him, swinging early in the count and producing hard-hit singles to the middle of the field, producing two runs with three straight two-out hits.

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4) For the second straight game, the Red Sox utilized small ball and took advantage of their opponents’ mistakes to score runs. In the second inning, the Red Sox moved a baserunner (Willson Contreras) from second to third on a flyout, then plated him with a sacrifice fly. In the third, two errors by the Orioles helped lead to two more runs — both of them unearned. It was yet another reminder of what can happen when you put the ball in play. Later, the tying run in the seventh inning scored with the benefit of yet another Baltimore error, the fourth of the night.

5) It’s hard to overstate the importance of Tyron Guerrero, who continues to shine in high-leverage spots. He came on in relief of Tolle in the sixth with two runs in and runners on the corners and made quick work of Sam Huff, getting him looking at a called third strike. Guerrero had allowed an earned run in just one of his previous 17 appearances before yielding a run in the seventh.

6) The little things mean a lot at times. In the top of the seventh, it appeared as though Guerrero was going to get out of a first-and-third, one-out mess when Tyler O’Neill hit a ground ball to second baseman Anthony Seigler. But it looked as if Seigler was thinking about turning two before the ball got to him and he bobbled it, leaving him with only one play: getting the out at first as the go-ahead run crossed the plate.

7) Connor Wong has not had much success throwing out base stealers this season. Coming into Monday, in fact, he had gunned down just three would-be runners in 27 attempts this season. Of course, it’s not always the catcher’s fault when a runner swipes a base; often, the pitcher hasn’t done a good job of changing his look and keeping the runner close. Either way, Wong made a strong throw in the top of the fifth to nail Pete Alonso at second for the final out of the inning.

8) In the second game of a three-game series between the teams, the pitching matchup will feature RHP Kyle Bradish (6-9, 3.61) vs. TBD for the Red Sox at 7:10 p.m. Ranger Suarez will return from the IL and start, interim manager Chad Tracy confirmed late Monday.

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