The Red Sox had every opportunity to put the Rangers away.

They had a two-run lead in the eighth, only to allow a solo homer and the game-tying run to score on an error that could have ended the inning.

They rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth, only to cough up the lead again in the ninth after failing to turn what would have been a game-ending double play. That left the door open for Wyatt Langford to stun the Fenway Park crowd with a three-run home run to force extra innings, and once in the 10th Jonah Heim only needed one pitch to put his team ahead for good.

Heim’s two-run home run off Zack Kelly was the decisive blow in the Red Sox 9-7 loss to the Rangers, and Adolis Garcia tacked on a pair of solo home runs in what will go down as one of the most frustrating defeats of the season for Boston.

The Red Sox also wasted another strong outing by Tanner Houck, who grinded at times but gave his team enough to win.

Last time out Houck only struck out one batter while generating two whiffs, and while Houck fared much better by drawing 13 whiffs, he still only tallied three strikeouts and often struggled to locate his sinker. He also hit two batters and walked two, but Houck found a way to work with what he had, and the end result was his 17th quality start in 24 outings.

Houck worked around a leadoff double in the first and kept the Rangers off the board by drawing a grounder to first that Dom Smith threw home to easily nail the lead runner at home plate. Texas scored in the second on a sacrifice fly by Leody Taveras, but after that Houck was able to keep the Rangers at bay until the sixth, when Adolis Garcia tied the game at 2-2 on a solo home run to the Green Monster seats.

In the meantime Boston turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead with two runs in the second on a run-scoring safety squeeze bunt by Nick Sogard and an RBI single by David Hamilton. Sogard also made some impressive defensive plays at second base to support Houck, including a smooth double play to end the bottom of the fourth.

After Hamilton’s big hit, however, the Red Sox bats went ice cold. Rangers starter Dane Dunning proceeded to retire the next 10 batters he faced through the bottom of the fifth, though after Garcia’s home run tied the game, Wilyer Abreu answered with a solo shot of his own to lead off the bottom of the sixth, putting the Red Sox right back in front 3-2.

Masataka Yoshida then singled to chase Dunning from the game, and Rafael Devers greeted left-hander Andrew Chafin with another single to put runners at the corners. Then followed one of the most bizarre plays we’ve seen all season.

Pinch hitter Romy Gonzalez skied a fly ball to center field, which was plenty deep enough to score Yoshida from third on a sacrifice fly. The only problem was Devers apparently lost track of the outs and took off on contact, allowing the Rangers to easily double him up at first to end the inning.

Fortunately, because the play was an appeal rather than a force out, Yoshida’s run still counted, making it 4-2.

Houck came back out for the seventh and got to within one pitch of finishing his outing strong, but a two-out walk to Seager ended his day after 108 pitches. Brennan Bernardino was able to clean things up by drawing a flyout to end the threat, however, preserving Houck’s line of two runs on six hits over 6.2 innings.

Luis Garcia then took the ball in the eighth and served up a solo shot to Garcia, his second in as many at bats and his 20th of the season. The recent trade deadline acquisition has struggled since his arrival in Boston, and Wednesday marked his fifth straight outing with at least one run allowed.

Things only got worse from there.

Garcia proceeded to allow back-to-back infield singles, and after falling behind No. 9 hitter Leody Taveras in the count 3-0 with two outs, he got a gift of a ground ball up the middle that should have ended the inning and preserved the one-run lead. But Hamilton dropped the ball, allowing a run to score and trying the game at 4-4.

Chris Martin was summoned to put out the fire, and he drew a lineout from Marcus Semien to end the inning and keep it a tie game.

Boston scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to take the lead, getting a go-ahead RBI single from Danny Jansen and a two-run double from Romy Gonzalez to make it 7-4. That probably should have been enough, but with closer Kenley Jansen unavailable after recording a four-out save on Tuesday, the Red Sox handed the ball to Josh Winckowski, who promptly allowed two singles and served up the go-ahead three-run shot to Langford to send the game to extras.

That set the stage for Heim’s dagger in the 10th, and now the Red Sox will fly to Baltimore knowing they let one slip away.

Duran welcomed back

In his first game back after serving a two-game suspension for making a homophobic remark, Jarren Duran was well received by the fans at Fenway Park. The outfielder received a louder than usual cheer when his name was announced in the pregame introductions, and when he stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the first inning he was greeted with polite applause and no audible boos. He finished 1 for 5 with two strikeouts.