Red Sox bounce Rays in 13 on odd call

BOSTON — Kevin Kiermaier’s line drive sailed over right fielder Hunter Renfroe’s head and bounced off the short wall in front of the Boston bullpen and back onto the warning track. It ricocheted off Renfroe and into the air.

The Red Sox right fielder waved at it desperately — and unsuccessfully — to keep it from going out of play.

It’s a good thing he couldn’t.

Saved by an obscure rule and a bounce that was weird even for quirky Fenway Park, the Red Sox staggered Tampa Bay 6-4 Sunday night on Christian Vázquez’s 13th-inning walk-off homer to move one victory from eliminating the 100-win Rays from the AL Division Series.

“I was speechless,” said center fielder Kiké Hernandez, who had come over to back up Renfroe. “I don’t know if you guys have seen that before. I’ve never seen that before in my life.

“I wasn’t sure what was going to get called. I wasn’t sure if the runners had to return. … Like, I had no idea,” he said. “Luckily, it went our way. And you call it home-field advantage if you want — call it whatever you want — but we won.”

The wild-card Red Sox took a 2-1 edge in the best-of-five matchup. Game 4 is Monday at Fenway — Marathon Day in Boston — with Game 5 in St. Petersburg, Florida, on Wednesday, if necessary.

Tampa Bay rallied from a 4-2 deficit to tie it in the eighth inning and it was still 4-all when Yandy Diaz singled with one out in the 13th.

Then came the play that had the umpires scurrying for the rulebook and the Rays scratching their heads.

Diaz was halfway from second to third when Kiermaier’s ball bounced over the 5-foot-high wall, and he easily would have scored had it remained in play. But the umpires conferred and went to the headsets before awarding Kiermaier a double and sending Diaz back to third.

Baseball Rule 5.05(a)(8) states: “Any bounding fair ball is deflected by the fielder into the stands, or over or under a fence on fair or foul territory, in which case the batter and all runners shall be entitled to advance two bases.”

“If I stayed at second, that’s fine,” Kiermaier said. “But I was hoping to see that Yandy scored, because he would have scored obviously. … It’s incredible that it worked out to their advantage just like that.”

Rays manager Kevin Cash said he watched the replay and it was obvious Renfroe didn’t knock it over the wall on purpose.

“That’s just the rule. That’s the way it goes. It was very unfortunate for us,” he said. “I think it was fairly obvious that K.K. or Yandy was going to come around to score, but it didn’t go our way.”

Said umpire crew chief Sam Holbrook: “It’s in the rulebook. It’s a ground-rule double. There’s no discretion that the umpires have.”

“There’s no, ‘He would have done this, would have done that.’ It’s just flat-out in the rule book, it’s a ground-rule double,” he said.

When play resumed, Nick Pivetta struck out Mike Zunino to end the inning and came bounding off the mound in celebration.

Renfroe walked with one out in the bottom half, then Vázquez hit the first pitch from Luis Patiño over the Green Monster to end it.

Hernández and Kyle Schwarber each had three hits, including a homer, for Boston.

Hernández singled in the first, singled in the third and homered in the fifth to give him seven consecutive hits in the series. He went 5 for 6 with a home run and three doubles in Boston’s Game 2 win, becoming the first Red Sox player ever with four extra-base hits in a postseason game.

Red Sox ace Nate Eovaldi allowed Austin Meadows’ two-run homer in the top of the first, but Schwarber led off the bottom half with a home run. Hernández’s fifth-inning homer gave Boston a 4-2 lead, but the Rays tied it in the eighth when Wander Franco hit a solo homer and Meadows and Randy Arozarena doubled.

Garrett Whitlock struck out Zunino to end the inning.

WHITE SOX 12, ASTROS 6

CHICAGO — Whether he’s slugging game-ending home runs in an Iowa cornfield or piling up hits in the postseason, Tim Anderson keeps showing a flair for the biggest moments.

Chicago’s exuberant star did it again. And the White Sox kept their season going for at least another day.

Anderson singled three times and scored twice in another big playoff performance as the White Sox beat the Houston Astros 12-6 Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep in their AL Division Series.

He has 16 hits in six career playoff games, the most by any major leaguer over a six-game postseason span. He is 16 for 29 in that stretch, with seven hits in this series after collecting nine in last year’s wild-card loss to Oakland.

With the AL Central champions facing elimination, the All-Star came through again.

Anderson lined a leadoff single in the first inning against Rookie of the Year candidate Luis Garcia and scored on Eloy Jiménez’s two-out base hit. With the game tied at 6, the White Sox scored three in the fourth. And, no surprise, Anderson had a hand in that.

He singled to shortstop Carlos Correa leading off against Yimi Garcia, moved to second on Luis Robert’s hit and came around on Jose Abreu’s base hit of Zack Greinke, putting Chicago on top 7-6. He added an RBI single during a three-run eighth, helping the White Sox bump their lead to 12-6.

That Anderson continues to come through in big spots is hardly a surprise. He delivered the ultimate Hollywood ending with his winning homer in the “Field of Dreams” game against the New York Yankees, one of the highlights of Chicago’s run to its first AL Central championship since 2008.

With his theatrical bat flips and fun-loving attitude, Anderson just might be Chicago’s most marketable star. At 28 years old, he has a batting title to his credit. And this year, he made his first All-Star team.