CChristian Vázquez broke the tie with a triple producer in the ninth episode, and the Boston Red Sox were very close to getting a ticket to the playoffs, by prevailing on Saturday 5-3 on the Washington Nationals.
Boston is tied with the New York Yankees in the fight for the first ticket wild card to the postseason in the American League, heading into the games this Sunday, the last day of the regular season.
The Red Sox will send ace Chris Sale to the mound against Washington, in search of the victory that places them in the playoffs. If they win, they will be locals in the wild card game scheduled for Tuesday, no matter what New York does, since Boston was 10-9 in his direct games against the Yankees this season.
If the Red Sox go down on Sunday, they will still be guaranteed a tiebreaker match for Monday. They are a game ahead of Toronto and a game and a half ahead of Seattle.
Tanner Houck solved five innings perfectly, prescribing eight strikeouts, but Washington tied the score 1-1 in the eighth on a long sacrifice fly by the Dominican. Juan Soto to center field with the bases loaded against Austin Davis (1-2).
JD Martínez opened the ninth chapter by managing a ticket. The Puerto Rican Vázquez connected after his hit to the right field in front of closer Tanner Rainey (1-3).
This allowed the career of Cuban José Iglesias, who entered as a pinch runner, to place the game 2-1 with two outs. Travis Shaw hit a single that drove in Vázquez and the Puerto Rican Kiké Hernández homered off Mason Thompson to make it 5-1.
Andrew Stevenson hit a two-run home run in the ninth inning before the Dominican Hansel Robles will score his 14th rescue.