ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Starting pitching? Overrated, apparently.
Home field advantage? Same.
A demoralizing punch to the gut in the first inning? No big deal.
And so, just when it seemed like the Red Sox were putting themselves on the fast track to a series sweep at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, something kicked in. Call it survival instincts. Or resiliency. Or maybe just the muscle memory that the Red Sox were second in all of baseball in comeback wins during the regular season.
To be sure, after the Red Sox scored twice in the first inning Friday night, the Rays answered with a five-run mugging of Chris Sale, capped by a grand slam from Jordan Luplow -- on a two-strike pitch.
But there was no panic in the visitor's dugout at Tropicana Field, and certainly no quit.
"It was pretty upbeat, to be honest with you,'' said Kike Hernandez, who had a five-hit night including a homer and three doubles in the Red Sox 14-6 triumph over the Rays to square the American League Division Series at 1-1. "I mean we (came back) all through the season and why not do it now? We're here. It wasn't (exactly) win or go home but for us, that was kind of the mentality because going down in the series 2-0 against that team is a very uphill battle.''
"It was definitely a little deflating at first,'' acknowledged Alex Verdugo, who had three hits and two RBI. "But I just remember going into the dugout and (Alex Cora) is coming up and down the dugout, going, 'It's all right, we've got a whole game...eight more innings. You know, keep going.' I felt like that really set the tone.''
Indeed, the Sox began clawing their way back into the series in the third with back-to-back homers from Xander Bogaerts and Alex Verdugo. In the fifth, a leadoff homer from Hernandez brought them to within a run.
Then a walk and a single, brought J.D. Martinez to the plate.
Martinez wasn't officially in the lineup until just over an hour before gametime, He had spent much of the day getting treatment on his sprained left ankle, and then took batting practice on the field to make sure that he could achieve proper balance with his stance.
Before he could trust his ankle, he has to clear his head.
"Your mind kind of just changes the position you want to land (with your swing) because you don't want to put that pressure on it and the torque that you're putting on it,'' he said. "That was one thing I was battling (Thursday when he was held out of the series opener). I didn't like how my front foot was landing. So today, I was able to stick it and it felt a lot better, and I was like, 'Yeah, OK, this can actually work.' ''
Did it ever, Martinez, who had singled sharply to right in the first, clubbed a pitch to straightaway center, easily clearing the 404-foot marker, for a three-run homer. And so the Red Sox, who had led 2-0 only to fall behind 5-3, were ahead again, 8-5 -- this time to stay.
The rest was just piling on.
When it was time to total it all up, the Red Sox set a franchise record for most homers in a postseason game (five), and had five players three hits or more, tying a major league record, while also becoming just the eighth team in MLB postseason history to bang out 20 or more hits in a game. Meanwhile, their 14 runs were the third-most in franchise history for a single postseason game. Six players had multiple RBI.
Everybody hits. (Actually the first and last hitters in their starting lineup -- leadoff man Kyle Schwarber and No. 9 hitter Christian Arroyo - went without a hit.)
Somehow, in two games in which the Red Sox got a grand total of 3.2 innings from their two starting pitchers, they managed a split, and in so doing, effectively erased the eight-game gap that existed between the clubs in the regular-season standings.
That separation - a first-place finish and division title -- enabled the Rays to sit out the wild card round and open the series with the Sox here. And in the bottom of the first, with Sale out and the Sox very nearly down and out, it appeared as the Sox' season could be measured by the remaining innings.
A mere eight innings later, the picture changed considerably. The home-field advantage is theirs now, stolen from the Rays in their own backyard. If the Sox can win the next two at Fenway, they won't have to return here before moving on to the ALCS. Even if they split at home, they'll return Wednesday secure in the knowledge that they can beat the Rays at their own game and in their own ballpark.
"I think we're all happy, man,'' said Verdugo. "Riding high right now, We just did our job. ... Now we're going back to Fenway in our element with our crowd and our home ballpark.''
The momentum shift was enough to give the Red Sox whiplash. In the span of a few innings, they went from almost being done to, perhaps, just getting started.