Three-run homer by Vazquez caps season's most dramatic win

It was the worst of nights, it was the best of nights.

One minute, the Red Sox were going to suffer their most demoralizing defeat of the season, and then, the next, they were celebrating their most glorious win.

Pandemonium on the field.

Mercy.

They trailed the Cleveland Indians by five after an inning and a half. They then scored five runs of their own in the bottom of the second to start from scratch.

They fell behind by two again in the fifth before scoring four more in the sixth to take their first lead of the night.

They saw their lead halved in the eighth, erased in the ninth, then watch as it vanished completely.

But not permanently, as it turned out.

“This,’’ said Chris Sale, “was an interesting game. To come out on top, that’s huge for us.

“This,’’ summarized Xander Bogaerts, “was a Play Station game, you know?’’

That seemed as apt a description as any after the Red Sox had overtaken the Cleveland Indians, 12-10, in a game that, had it been played in October, would instantly qualify as an all-time classic. This being only August, it was still plenty incredible.

How else to explain Chris Sale being rocked for seven runs in five innings of work? Or Andrew Miller yielding a bases-clearing Wall-ball double? Or Craig Kimbrel allowing a game-tying homer, and then, the go-ahead run on a wild pitch?

Tuesday’s game had all of that and more. It had Eduardo Nunez continuing to cast himself as The Greatest Trade Deadline Acquisition Ever. And it featured a catch by Austin Jackson that had to be seen to be believed. Even then, it strained credulity.

Perhaps one day this winter, long after the 2017 season is history, the Red Sox will stop and figure out how it was that Sale and Kimbrel, their two most important contributors in the first four months, combined to allow nine runs…in a game they still managed to win.

Maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to see this game from a distance and make some sense of it. Late Tuesday night, from up-close, it looked like a acid-induced surrealistic painting. Hey, is that an elephant’s trunk sticking out of a gas tank?

“That’s baseball,’’ offered Kimbrel with a smile and a shrug, supplying the kind of answer that baseball players frequently resort to when no other reasonable explanation comes to mind.

It began with Sale looking like someone else had inhabited his body for the night. He brought a scoreless streak of 21.2 scoreless innings into the start, and then proceeded to give up more runs in two innings then he had in the entire month of July.

“My command was off,’’ said Sale. “I made bad pitches at bad times, honestly. I had a bad night, an off night.’’

The Sox bailed him out with an unusual show of run support. In 11 of Sale’s first 21 starts this season, they managed two runs or fewer with him in the game. On this night, however, they got him five by the second inning, digging out from a 5-0 hole.

This was not to be Sale’s night, however. He seemed close to figuring some things out in the third and fourth, and at one point, retired nine of 10 Indians he faced. But a two-out double to Jose Ramirez was soon followed by a two-run skyscraping flyball from Edwin Encarnacion that kissed one of the signs above the Monster Seats in its return from orbit.

“Having my guys fight back,’’ said Sale, “and for me to just pop the balloon right there, stunk.’’

All seemed forgiven when the Sox rallied against the Cleveland bullpen, ranked first in the American League. Miller, last fall’s bullpen superhero, hit the first batter he faced (Chris Young) to load the bases, which then emptied when Nunez continued to tattoo The Wall. A rocket double scored three and gave the Sox a two-run lead.

It was a bit when ominous when the first hitter Addison Reed faced as a member of the Red Sox, Carlos Santana, drilled a homer over the visitor’s bullpen.  Sure enough, when Kimbrel followed suit by yielding a leadoff homer to the first batter he faced (Francisco Lindor) in the ninth, it seemed for certain that this wasn’t the Red Sox’ night.

That was only reinforced when Kimbrel continued to sputter, filling the bases with two singles and a walk, and then, compounding matters by throwing a pitch to the backstop as the go-ahead run crossed the plate.

In the bottom of the ninth, a small sliver of hope appeared when Rafael Devers, busting down the first base line, slid head-first into the bag, earning himself an infield single if not a smart baserunning award. Two batters later, Mitch Moreland swung at strike three. But the ball rolled away from Cleveland catcher Yan Gomes. Moreland stood in the box in a bit of suspended animation, before being prompted, quite loudly, by his teammates in the dugout, to head to first, which he reached safely.

Yet another wild pitch – the third of the inning by the two teams, naturally – moved both baserunners into scoring position.

That brought Christian Vazquez to the plate.  Had Sandy Leon not wrenched his knee in a home plate pirouette Friday night, he – and not Vazquez -- would have been the catcher Tuesday, as he had been for every one of Sale’s first 21 starts.

But Leon sat, and Vazquez played and now was his moment. The same Vazquez who had nine hits in his previous 16 at-bats, easier his hottest streak of the season.

Because, of course. It had to be.  He was then gifted a 3-and-1 fastball from closer Cody Allen.

“I was trying to hit the ball hard,’’ said Vazquez, “but it never came to my mind to hit a homer.  But that’s when they come - when you’re not trying.’’

A single would have done the job, but then, that wouldn’t have been dramatic enough. No,  to do this one justice, it would require a majestic, no-doubt-about-it laser to the nexus of the Wall and center field bleachers.

What a night. What a win.

Had Sale ever seen a ninth inning like that before?

"I don’t think so,’’ he said upon reflection.  “But this is baseball. You can come to the park and see something new every day.’’

And still not believe what you just saw.