Alex Cora, who’s spent his entire life watching, playing, coaching, and managing baseball, couldn’t remember ever seeing a game like Sunday’s 3-2 Red Sox victory.

The series finale between Boston and Washington began and ended with a Nationals runner getting caught stealing second base.

Even with his encyclopedic baseball memory, the Red Sox skipper was was fairly sure it was a first for him. “None that I can recall, but I’m glad it happened,” the manager said with a smile.

“I don’t think so, not to my knowledge, no,” Connor Wong, who gunned down both runners from the dish, agreed.

And those were just the bookends on a Mother’s Day game filled with chaos. Cora described the contest as an “ugly” one more than once during his postgame media availability. “It’s an ugly one, but I’ll take it,” he said after a win that seemed to take much longer than its two hours and thirty-one minutes.

Wong was the star of the show. The catcher made three strong throws for outs at second base and his leadoff walk in the second began what would ultimately the home team’s only scoring frame.

“Connor had a great game. He’s been struggling throwing to the bases and all that and today, he was really good,” his manager lauded.

Early on, the Boston batters looked as though they were going to attack MacKenzie Gore – a former Padres top prospect acquired in the Juan Soto trade – relentlessly. But Washington’s starter ended up pitching six innings, striking out nine, and held Boston to three runs (two earned), all scored in the second.

Wanting to maximize his right-handed hitters against the southpaw starter, Cora put Romy Gonzalez in the leadoff spot and moved Jarren Duran to eighth. The decision paid off immediately when Gonzalez led off with a first-pitch single. He stole second and advanced to third, only to be stranded when Rob Refsnyder, Tyler O’Neill, and Rafael Devers struck out in order.

“Their lefty (reliever) should be down today,” Cora explained of the leadoff switch, “so as soon as they go to a righty, we’ll pivot to (Wilyer Abreu).”

When Derek Law took over for Gore in the bottom of the seventh, that’s exactly what the Red Sox skipper did. That did little to jolt the lineup, though, as Abreu struck out swinging in what would be Boston’s second 1-2-3 inning.

All told, the Red Sox collected seven hits, drew two walks, and struck out 11 times. Garrett Cooper had their only multi-hit game, singling and doubling in his first two at-bats and scoring a run. The Red Sox wasted leadoff base-runners in the third (O’Neill, walk), fifth (Refsnyder, single), and eighth (Devers, double). Boston went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.

“The reason we are where we’re at is because of the pitching,” Cora said. “We need to be better offensively.”

Thanks to a solid effort by Brayan Bello, Cam Booser, Zack Kelly, Chris Martin, and Kenley Jansen, the Red Sox rode that one-run lead to the finish line. The Nationals collected five hits, four walks, one hit-by-pitch, but were 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position, leaving four men on base. Even without racking up the punch-outs – Bello, Booser, and Martin struck out one batter apiece – they managed to foil their guests.

In his first start since April 19, Bello threw just 68 pitches en route to his fourth win of the season. “He was okay. Command was off,” Cora said. “For his first one coming out of the IL, good. He gave us five, two runs, so now, he’ll be ready for the next one.”

Bello agreed, saying he felt he’d be “100 percent” for his next start. His five innings were tumultuous from the jump. He gave up a first-pitch single to CJ Abrams, and the Nationals leadoff man – another Soto trade piece – promptly stole second.

Only, Abrams hadn’t beaten the tag. The Red Sox successfully challenged the call, and freed from having a runner in scoring position, Bello quickly got the next two outs.

The right-hander opened the following frame with another pair of fast outs, then issued a walk to Eddie Rosario. But for the second time in six batters, Wong threw to Gonzalez for the out. Rosario was ruled to be out advancing, not caught stealing, but the result was the same: a fast 1-2-3 inning for Bello.

“The pitchers did an outstanding job slowing down the running game,” the manager said. “This is a team, we talked about it, they’re gonna push the envelope (on the base paths).”

Bello had to work out of an even bigger jam in the third when he gave up a one-out single to Riley Adams and Victor Robles reached on a questionable error by first baseman Cooper. Adams singled, which should’ve loaded the bases for Washington. Instead, Robles tried to advance to third, only to find Adams still on the base, and ended up caught in a half-hearted rundown. Buoyed by the play, Bello got Luis García Jr. to ground out and strand two.

The Nationals got on board in the fourth, though Ceddanne Rafaela went above and beyond to try and stop them. After Nick Senzel drew a two-out walk, Rosario walloped a first-pitch changeup high and deep into the Red Sox bullpen. In a moment eerily reminiscent of Torii Hunter flipping over the wall trying in vain to prevent David Ortiz’s grand slam in the 2013 ALCS, Rafaela ran for the attempted robbery and flipped headfirst into the pen.

“When (Rosario) hit it, I had an idea it was gone, but then he tipped it, right? He almost got it. I think he did, and it was gonna be one of those special ones,” Cora said. His only focus was making sure Rafaela was okay, but the rookie quickly jumped up and leapt back over the wall.

Thus, the Nationals got their first and only two runs of the afternoon. Bello’s final frame was a  mercifully uneventful 1-2-3, and Booser only needed seven pitches to get through the sixth.

“The stuff is good, and he’s throwing strikes,” Cora said of Booser. “That’s something that I didn’t see last year in spring training, and then halfway through the season, it just clicked.”

In fact, the veteran reliever only threw strikes on Sunday. “It’s a luxury to have two lefties,” the manager said of Booser and fellow reliever Brennan Bernardino.

“Honestly, I said I hope we have the lead in the ninth and finish it and let’s go home, because this is ugly, to be honest with you,” Cora said of his thought process in the dugout.

Thus, clinging to a one-run lead, Jansen took the mound for the ninth. He got the leadoff out, then gave up a single to Senzel, whom Nationals manager Davey Martinez promptly replaced with pinch-runner Jacob Young. The veteran closer got Rosario to fly out for the second out.

Then, after a pickoff attempt at first base, Young began to run. And Wong gunned.

The Nationals challenged the call, prolonging the Fenway light show and victory celebration, but only for a moment. The players stood awkwardly on the field while the play was quickly reviewed and upheld.

With that, Jansen had his 427th career save, the Red Sox had a series win, and “Dirty Water” blared from the sound system.