Puerto Rican Christian Vázquez sentenced Boston’s 6-4 victory with a two-run homer off Colombian Luis Patiño to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
In a marathon Game 3 of the American League Divisional Series, Tampa returned to lead in the first inning with a two-run homer from Mike Zunino.
Boston was able to react quickly and turned it around in the third with a three-line rally made with hits from Enrique Hernández and Rafael Devers.
Hernandez widened the gap in the fifth with a home run, his second of the postseason.
Robles failed in the relay
Those led by Kevin Cash did not give up and attacked reliever Hansel Robles, who had been a guarantee for manager Alex Cora.
Wander Franco started the inning with a home run to discount the difference to one (4-3), then Austin Meadows doubled and Robles seemed to straighten his work, but Randy Arozarena fired another double and equalized the score.
The rest of the innings remained in the hands of the pitchers, who managed to keep their rivals at zero.
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The decisive inning
Until the 13th inning, which was bumpy from the start, when the Rays looked like they were taking the lead.
With a runner in the first, Kevin Kiermaier hit a hit in front of Nick Pivetta that hit the wall in right field and Yandy Diaz was projected to score easily from first base.
However, when Red Sox right fielder Hunter Renfroe tried to catch the ball, it hit him in the body and blew the short near Fenway Park.
With that, the play was determined as a rules double — with Diaz reaching the anteroom only and Kiermaier second.
Pivetta struck out Mike Zunino for the third out of the inning. In that way, Tampa Bay fell short of taking the lead at the time.
For his part, at the end of the episode, Renfroe traded a one-out ticket and the Puerto Rican mask Vázquez took it out on the first pitch for the green monster.
Game 4 of the series will be Monday night at Fenway Park.
The majors
