With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the winning run at second, Wilyer Abreu sent a liner down the right field line off All-Star closer Josh Hader to an area of the park with maybe six inches of foul territory. It wasn’t going to make the stands, so all the Red Sox needed was for it to land fair and they’d walk off as winners.

Somehow, the ball landed foul.

These are the types of moments that can make or break a team, the little setbacks that can cause a club to crack. And while Abreu ultimately struck out to send the game to extra innings, the Red Sox hung tough and pulled out one of their signature wins of the season.

Roman Anthony sent the fans home happy Friday night, hitting his first career walk-off in the bottom of the 10th to beat the Houston Astros 2-1. Anthony hit a deep fly ball over the center fielder’s head for what officially went down as a single, and the big winner came after Ceddanne Rafaela advanced the extra innings ghost runner to third on a fielder’s choice.

“It’s amazing, it’s fun, I want to do it again already,” Anthony said of the walk-off afterwards.

The walk-off capped off a raucous evening at Fenway Park, which felt every bit like a playoff game with the perennial championship contending Astros in town. The sold out crowd was locked in from the first pitch, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora said afterwards that the atmosphere was as good as he’s ever seen.

“Today was tremendous, it was loud, they were into every pitch,” Cora said. “This is what it’s all about, winning games and making this place uncomfortable. I think they accomplished that tonight. A few years ago it was the yellow uniforms and now it’s the green ones, whatever it is just make it fun again here, make it a madhouse, the louder the better and I tip my hat to them because that was a fun atmosphere.”

Summoned from Triple-A to make his first big league start of the season, Cooper Criswell had a tall order facing down the Astros, especially with Cy Young Award contender Hunter Brown starting for the other side.

Brown was dominant as advertised, but Criswell gave the Red Sox more than enough.

The right-hander was as effective as he was efficient, needing only 84 pitches to get through the seven innings. He spread out seven hits and two walks, and the only damage the Astros could manage was a solo home run by Christian Walker in the top of the second inning.

Criswell also benefitted from some timely defensive plays and boneheaded baserunning gaffes by the Astros, who gave up three outs on the base paths, two of which immediately canceled out previous Red Sox errors.

The problem was that for a while, as good as Criswell was, Brown was even better.

Coming into the game Brown ranked third in the American League in ERA (2.54) and strikeouts (149), along with second in hits per nine innings (6.242) and fifth in wins above replacement for pitchers (3.8). He bolstered his standing in all of those categories on Friday, carving up the Red Sox over seven dominant innings.

The Red Sox did have their chances early, but couldn’t capitalize.

In the third inning Anthony singled with two outs and Alex Bregman followed with a single that was misplayed by left fielder Jesus Sanchez, whose error allowed both Anthony and Bregman to get into scoring position. But Brown bounced back and struck out Jarren Duran to end the threat.

Then in the sixth, Duran legged out a two-out double on what would have been a routine single for just about any other player in baseball. But Abraham Toro, who Alex Cora had slotted into the cleanup spot, flew out to leave Duran at second.

Finally, in the seventh, Brown began to run out of steam.

The 26-year-old walked Trevor Story, who promptly stole second to improve to 18 for 18 on stolen base attempts this season. Brown then went to a full count against Masataka Yoshida and hit him on the payoff pitch, giving the Red Sox two baserunners with no outs.

Carlos Narvaez laid down his first career sacrifice bunt to move the men into scoring position, and Abreu brought Story home from third with a sacrifice fly, tying the game at 1-1.

Brown finished with one run allowed over seven innings with four hits, a walk and six strikeouts.

Garrett Whitlock came on and pitched a scoreless eighth, working around his own fielding error by getting Carlos Correa — back in a Houston Astros uniform again following Thursday’s trade from the Minnesota Twins — to fly out to deep center field.

Aroldis Chapman followed with a perfect top of the ninth, at one point firing off a 103.3 mph sinker to draw a flyout from Walker, but despite Story’s double and Rob Refsnyder’s pinch hit walk, Abreu missed bringing the winning run home by literal inches before striking out to send the game to extras.

But once there the Red Sox stood tall.

Greg Weissert threw a scoreless top of the 10th, aided in part by a brilliant play by Story to gun down the lead runner at the plate.

That set the table for Anthony’s heroics, and for the team to prove that even after a trade deadline that left many fans wanting more, this club might still have what it takes.

“We love our team, we like where we’re at, we’re deeper than in previous years, we showed it today with Coop,” Cora said. “If we keep pitching we’re going to be ok.”