After over two hours of rain delay and a full postponement on Saturday, the Red Sox and Cardinals decided to maximize their time together. They went to extra-innings in the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader before Wilyer Abreu decided it was time for his first career walk-off, and singled to left for a 5-4 win and series victory in the 10th.

If not for Ryan Helsely’s uncharacteristically out-of-control ninth inning, the Cardinals might have another game in the win column. St. Louis led 4-2 before their hard-throwing closer took the mound and issued four walks for the second time in his career (Aug. 5, 2019), giving up two runs to tie the contest and allow the Red Sox to force extras.

Helsley threw eleven of his first 13 pitches for balls, issuing a leadoff walk to Trevor Story and a follow-up walk to Abreu, pinch-hitting for Rob Refsnyder, before getting Kristian Cambell to fly out to center.

Then, to loud chants of “Romy! Romy!” Gonzalez, who replaced second baseman David Hamilton in the seventh, ripped an RBI-double to left field, where it befuddled Lars Nootbaar and brought Boston within one.

Helsley responded by walking Connor Wong to load the bases. After getting Jarren Duran to strike out swinging for the second out, the game came down to Rafael Devers, who’d already hit his first home run of the season to give Boston a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Boston’s new designated hitter swung at the first pitch and took a called strike for the second, then patiently waited as Helsley threw four straight balls for the game-tying RBI-walk.

With the second game of the doubleheader barely two hours away, Alex Bregman struck out swinging to leave the bases loaded and send the game to extra innings.

Taking the mound for the top of the tenth, the crowd was on its feet and roaring as Boston’s new closer, Aroldis Chapman, bookended the inning with a pair of strikeouts, getting Pagés swinging for an exclamation point.

The bottom of the tenth was over on Ryan Fernandez’s sixth pitch. With Bregman the runner on second, the former Red Sox minor leaguer issued an intentional leadoff walk to Triston Casas and got Story to pop out. As Abreu sent the first pitch he saw soaring high to left field, Bregman, who began the inning at second, motored home for the winning run. Abreu, who enters the second game of the doubleheader 12 for 23 to begin the season, is the first Red Sox player to collect at least three homers and reach base 20 or more times in the team’s first nine games since David Ortiz in ‘06.

Hit rewind

Prior to the bottom of the ninth, the star of the show was Pedro Pagés. The Cardinals catcher wasn’t in the starting lineup, but he subbed in for Iván Herrera when the starting catcher exited with left-knee inflammation. Pagés went 2 for 3 with a strikeout and three runs batted in. His ground-rule double in the sixth re-tied the game 2-2, and his two-run double in the eighth gave St. Louis a 4-2 lead.

As the Cardinals set a new franchise record by beginning the season with eight consecutive double-digit hit games, tying the 1961 Pittsburgh Pirates for the second-longest streak in MLB history, their pitching staff held the Red Sox to eight knocks, snapping a three-game streak of double-digit hits.

Offensive highlights were few and far between through the first eight innings. Boston left 10 men on base, including bases-loaded opportunities in the second and ninth; they loaded the bases against Cardinals starter Andre Pallante on back-to-back singles by Story and Refsnyder and a walk to Kristian Cambell to begin the second, then went in order with a strikeout and back-to-back first-pitch grounders. A rally attempt in the eighth fell apart when Romy Gonzalez, pinch-hitting for Hamilton, and Connor Wong led off with back-to-back singles, only to both be thrown out by Pagés.

Prior to Helsley’s implosion, Boston’s lone runs came from David Hamilton, who tied the game on an RBI-single and stole second base in the fourth, and Devers’ homer in the fifth.

“He’s important for us,” Cora said of Hamilton on Saturday. “He impacts the game like no one else on the base path.”

The early feel-good story of the day was Sox starter Sean Newcomb. It had been nearly five years since the left-hander from Middleborough, Mass. had even reached 80 pitches in an outing, but he rose to the occasion in his first Red Sox start in front of the home crowd. He threw 94 pitches, the most he’s thrown in any game in almost exactly six years (April 7, 2019). He exited to applause two outs into the fifth, having held the Cardinals to one earned run on six hits, three walks, a hit batsman, and five strikeouts. Using an array of pitches headlined by a cutter, four-seam fastball, and slurve, he induced 11 swings-and-misses and threw 62.7% of his pitches for strikes.

The Red Sox are 5-4, their first winning mark since Opening Day, and have won four in a row. These are their first interleague wins, snapping a seven-game losing streak against National League teams dating back to last July.