Martinez’s home run in 10th inning pushes Sox to third consecutive win

CLEVELAND — The more the Red Sox keep reminding themselves that a playoff spot is still out there for them, the more complicated the road gets.

Between COVID-19 sending his leadoff hitter into quarantine, bereavement striking a cog in the outfield, and other assorted injuries hammering the roster as the Sox headed out on the road, manager Alex Cora was up at 1:30 Saturday morning twirling lineup ideas around in his head.

The Sox in the tail end of a stretch of nine games against sub.-500 teams, Cora believed he had enough.

“I think we’re well-covered,” Cora said before Saturday’s game in Cleveland. “We can put a lineup out there and we can make moves to win the game.”

The Sox had to go 10 innings to outlast Cleveland, 5-3.

J.D. Martinez delivered the swing of the night, launching a 2-1 cutter from Cleveland reliever Nick Wittgren over the fence in right-center with runners on first and third for the go-ahead three-run homer in the 10th.

But the Sox had to put out a fire in the bottom of the inning to seal it.

With Jose Ramirez starting the inning on second as Cleveland’s free runner, Sox reliever Martín Pérez walked Franmil Reyes and hit Bradley Zimmer, putting himself in a bases-loaded, no-out hotspot.

Perez hung on to strike out Bobby Bradley on three pitches for the first out of the inning. But manager Alex Cora called on Adam Ottavino to handle the rest of the mess.

Ottavino fed Austin Hedges a healthy portion of sinkers, looking for a ground ball, but ultimately got him to chase a fastball above the strike zone on a 1-2 count for the second out of the inning.

He couldn’t keep Cleveland completely quiet though. The next at-bat, Oscar Mercado jumped on a first-pitch slider and shot it to right field to score Ramirez and cut the lead to 5-3.