Red Sox control Wild Card destiny with heart-pounding victory over Nationals

With the way things have gone, it seems as though the Red Sox have already been competing in playoff games for the better part of the last month, with plenty of drama and stress to fill an October.

On Saturday, they took a giant step closer to the real thing.

They certainly didn’t make it easy on themselves — what else is new? — but the Red Sox will enter the final day of the regular season with their destiny in their own hands. Christian Vazquez hit an RBI triple in the ninth to open the floodgates after the Red Sox had just lost their lead in the eighth, and they went on to complete a thrilling 5-3 victory over the Nationals, ensuring that their season will live beyond Sunday.

The formula is now simple for the Red Sox: With the Yankees losing to the Rays, they pulled into a tie for the American League’s first Wild Card spot. A win in Sunday’s finale means the Sox would host the Wild Card game on Tuesday night at Fenway Park. A loss ensures more chaos.

The Red Sox certainly hope it won’t get to that point after yet another heart-pounding win.

They didn’t do themselves any favors, clinging to a 1-0 lead after Rafael Devers’ solo homer in the fourth and continuing to teeter on disaster. Tanner Houck threw five perfect innings, but was pulled as his turn to bat came up. The offense couldn’t add on, leading to many stressful innings for the bullpen.

Ryan Brasier’s electric inning-ending strikeout of Jordy Mercer with the bases loaded in the seventh gave the Red Sox brief elation, but the bullpen eventually caved with little margin for error.

It turned with one out in the eighth, when Adam Ottavino induced Ryan Zimmerman into a fly ball to center. But Hunter Renfroe lost it in the sky and it fell for a double. Ottavino followed with two consecutive walks, including a borderline 3-2 call that evoked some choice words from him to home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi.

With the bases loaded for Nats superstar Juan Soto, Cora turned to Austin Davis for the unenviable assignment. Though he didn’t give up major damage, Soto’s sacrifice fly tied the game before Xander Bogaerts snared a liner from Josh Bell to end the inning.

Beyond Devers’ homer, the Red Sox stayed frustrated at the plate until the ninth, when they finally broke it open. J.D. Martinez drew a leadoff walk before Vazquez tripled with two outs, sending a first-pitch fastball over the head of Soto in right to score pinch runner Jose Iglesias for the go-ahead run. Travis Shaw followed with an RBI single before Kiké Hernandez’s two-run homer gave them much-needed insurance.

Davis, who stayed in the game as a hitter and walked on four pitches, returned to the mound in bottom of the ninth and walked the leadoff hitter, then gave up a two-run homer to Andrew Stevenson. Cora turned to Hansel Robles, who held it down again for the save.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3a0Cr4M