The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees kept their Major League Baseball playoff bids going on Sunday with the Red Sox offence coming alive and Yankees winning a pitching duel.
Boston exploded for six runs in the seventh inning for a 10-3 win over the Houston Astros, while the Yankees held on for a 1-0 shutout of the Cleveland Indians after dropping the first two games in their best-of-five American League series.
The Red Sox more than doubled the four runs they scored over the course of the first two games on the road with the help of home runs from Rafael Devers and Jackie Bradley.
Boston, still trailing 2-1 in the series, will try to pull level when they host game four on Monday.
Devers smacked a two-run homer in the third inning to put Boston up 4-3, their first lead of the series.
The 20-year-old became the youngest Red Sox player ever to homer in a playoff game and just the sixth player in major league player in history to do so in the post-season before turning 21.
“He’s an extremely talented kid, and I think we marvel at the fact that he’s 20 years of age,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. Bradley’s three-run home run - his first career post-season homer - was part of the six-run seventh. Hanley Ramirez went four-for-four with three runs-batted-in and Sand Leon drive in another run for the Red Sox.
“We don’t give up,” he said.
“We were in the post-season last year and unfortunately we couldn’t do the job,” added Ramirez, recalling that the Red Sox were swept in the first round last season.
“I told everybody it’s not going to happen two years in a row.”
After the Red Sox fell into an early hole - with Carlos Correa hitting a two-run homer and Josh Reddick driving in a run for the Astros in the first inning - Boston relief pitcher David Price produced four shutout innings with four strikeouts.
“Monster,” Ramirez said of Price’s performance. “Great heart, great competitor.”
The winner of the series will take on either the Yankees or Cleveland for a World Series berth. In New York, Greg Bird led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a homer, and Aroldis Chapman posted a five-out save as the Yankees staved off elimination. Bird helped the Yankees force game four on Monday when he lifted a fastball on a 1-1 count from left-hander Andrew Miller into the second deck in right field.
It was only the second homer allowed by Miller to a left-handed hitter this season.
 
‘Grinded it out’
“He is one of best,” Bird said of Miller. “I was just trying to give us a good at-bat and keep the game going. It has been an interesting year for me.
“This is a great team. We know we can do this and keep it rolling. We grinded it out. This is huge for us.”
With one out in the ninth, Chapman gave up a single to Jason Kipnis and an infield hit to Jose Ramirez, putting runners at first and second.
Chapman clinched the victory by striking out Jay Bruce and retiring Carlos Santana on a fly ball to deep centre field.
Japan’s Masahiro Tanaka scattered three hits in seven brilliant innings. He struck out seven, walked one, threw 92 pitches and induced two double plays.
Both National League division series resume today, when the Chicago Cubs host the Nationals at Wrigley Field after splitting the first two games in Washington and the Los Angeles Dodgers try to close out the Diamondbacks in Arizona after taking two wins at home.