They saw a 5-0 lead, slowly but surely, pried away. They went from comfortably ahead to very uncomfortably tied in the eighth inning, knowing they were a run away from a trip back to Tropicana Field and all the uncertainty that a winner-take-all Game 5 would represent Wednesday night.
But the Red Sox didn't panic.
A tie game? A win-or-go-home scenario?
It didn't shake them. It didn't rattle them.
These were comparatively speaking, minor inconveniences. They had already survived so much worse.
So a tie game, in their own ballpark, was not going to throw them.
"This whole year, anybody who has underestimated the fight in this team, has sold them short,'' said chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom as the organization celebrated on the Fenway lawn after edging the Tampa Bay Rays 6-5 to move on to the American League Championship Series later this week. "They showed them time and again. They showed it tonight. All the momentum seemed to be heading the Rays way and put together a rally in the bottom of the ninth and we got to celebrate.''
Indeed, after the Red Sox erupted for five runs in the third, the Rays went about chipping away at the deficit. They got one back in the fifth off starter Eduardo Rodriguez, two more in the sixth -- another off Rodriguez and one more off Tanner Houck, revealing himself to be not perfect after all -- and finally, two in the eighth when Ryan Brasier, one of the team's most reliable relievers in recent weeks, stumbled and allowed three straight hits at the worst possible time.
But fold? No. In the ninth, a leadoff single from Game 3 hero Christian Vazquez, a well-executed bunt from Christian Arroyo, an infield single by pinch-hitter Travis Shaw and a sacrifice fly from Kiké Hernandez resulted in pandemonium on the field, and a trip to the ALCS.
This was one lead blown in one game. This was a mere pop quiz after the many tests the team had already passed.
Bloom recalled what may have been the tipping point of the regular season, when the Sox and any hopes of playing postseason games like last night hung in the balance: the night of Aug. 31, in, of all places, Tropicana Field.
A COVID outbreak, which had begun four days earlier in Cleveland, was now raging out of control, soon to infect almost half of the major league roster. That night, as the Sox took the field in the bottom of the second, the dugout got word that shortstop Xander Bogaerts had to come out of the game due to a positive COVID test.
Watching on TV from his home in the Boston suburbs, Bloom's heart sank.
"It was jarring,'' said Bloom. "I understand why we put up our worst half-inning of the season after that, if anybody felt like I felt.''
The Sox lost again that night, for their third straight defeat, falling a season-high 10 games out of first. But never mind catching the Rays; the Red Sox were in a fight to avoid a freefall sending them plummeting out of the playoff picture altogether.
It was fight or flight time. The Red Sox, or what was left of them, were determined to stand their ground.
"As a group, we had to come together and find something that no individual in this group had been asked to do, at any point,'' Bloom said. "And I think that experience really served us well down the stretch. Because there were a lot of points -- in early September, or the last week of the season, and even in this series -- where they just could have folded the tent. And they didn't. And I think some of that goes back to having to come together and make it happen after that low point in St. Pete, when Bogey came off the field.
"Rebounding from that, and finding a way, some of that stuff built resilience. You build the ability to go forward, take some punches and keep on going. The important thing in this game, in this marathon -- if you'll excuse that term on a day like this -- is you have to keep going. It's a long season. You keep going, you don't let it get away from you, you stay with it. Eventually, if you don't let it go, it will come back to you. These guys demonstrated that.''
So the Sox held onto their season for dear life. They didn't relinquish when they got swept by the Yankees in the last homestand of the season, or when they dropped two-of-three to Baltimore. They continued to stay tethered when the Rays blanked them in Game 1 last week, and the next night, too, when a 2-0 first-inning head start was wiped out in the bottom of the same inning.
They won that one, then wouldn't loosen their grip during Sunday's pre-marathon marathon, outlasting the Rays in 13 innings. Then, once more Monday night.
"You could tell from Day 1 in spring training that these guys were on a mission,'' said Bloom. "That in itself doesn't guarantee anything. But I think without that, we're not here.''
Here is headed to the ALCS, which means the trip is only half complete, with the wild card game and the Division Series behind them and eight more wins to get to mission accomplished.
But it's a start.