BOSTON SPORTS WAVE

5-Run Lead Blown, But Kiké Hernandez Sac Flies Red Sox Into ALCS With Walk-Off RBI

Boston Red Sox

Kiké Hernandez put the Boston Red Sox into the ALCS with his walk-off sac fly Monday night.

An explosive third inning had Rays fans panicking early, as the Sox rallied for five runs. Rafael Devers broke open the floodgates with a three-run jack into straightaway center field, and a string of three straight hits from Xander Bogaerts, Alex Verdugo, and J.D. Martinez made it 5-0. Hunter Renfroe doubled to put two in scoring position with two outs to make it four consecutive hits, but Chrisitan Vazquez struck out swinging to retire the side.

Eduardo Rodriguez dazzled, hurling five three-hit innings while fanning five — he allowed a leadoff double to Jordan Luplow in the fifth, and a groundout later scored him.

Rodriguez started the sixth, but Kevin Kiermaier stroked a leadoff double before E-Rod was relieved by Tanner Houck — who let up a two-run blast off the bat of Wander Franco to cut Boston’s lead to just two.

The Sox had a glorifying opportunity with runners on the corners in the sixth, but Bogaerts grounded into an inning-ending double play that kept Boston’s tally at five.

Josh Taylor hurled a scoreless seventh but was relieved by Ryan Brasier, who ran into some trouble in the eighth. Back-to-back doubles from Mike Zunino and Keirmaier led off the eighth and made it 5-4, before Randy Arozarena tied it with an RBI single.

Garrett Whitlock finished the eighth and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth which handed it over to Boston’s offense. Christian Vazquez led off with a single, and Christian Arroyo sac bunted Vazquez over to second. Travis Shaw, a pinch-hitter for Bobby Dalbec, beat out a dribbler to the third base side that first baseman Ji-Man Choi dropped.

That set up Hernandez’s sac fly, as the Sox are headed to the ALCS.

Photo by Winslow Townson/Getty Images

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