Red Sox take 3-1 World Series lead with 9-6 victory over Dodgers

Journeyman delivers tying homer, clutch double

LOS ANGELES — An 18-inning loss in Game 3 of the World Series couldn’t wear out the Boston Red Sox. A four-run deficit late in Game 4 definitely didn’t faze them.

This plucky powerhouse just kept getting clutch hits to move to the brink of another championship.

Steve Pearce hit a tying homer in the eighth and a three-run double in the ninth as the Red Sox rallied for a 9-6 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Saturday.

Pinch-hitter Rafael Devers singled home Brock Holt with the tiebreaking run in the ninth as Boston roared to a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven matchup.

Game 5 is Sunday at Dodger Stadium, where the Red Sox can close out a spectacular season with their fourth title in 15 years. Boston’s Game 2 winner, David Price, will start on short rest against fellow lefty Clayton Kershaw.

“We’re not out yet,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Our guys aren’t done. We’ve got our best going tomorrow and we’re expecting to win a baseball game.”

Shortly after Yasiel Puig’s threerun homer in the sixth put the Dodgers up 4-0, Boston’s incredible surge began with pinch-hitter Mitch Moreland’s three-run homer.

The Red Sox will have trouble topping this performance, in which they overcame a three-run deficit in a World Series game for only the second time. Boston also rallied from three runs down against Cincinnati in 1975 in Game 6, best known for Carlton Fisk’s dramatic homer in the 12th after Bernie Carbo tied it with a three-run shot.

Pearce was an unlikely candidate to become the latest postseason hero in Boston’s lengthy October history, but he did it twice. The 35-year-old journeyman connected

off All-Star closer Kenley Jansen for the tying homer in the eighth and he cleared the bases one inning later with a double to the gap.

After this impressive escape, the superlative Boston roster that won 108 regular-season games and then rolled through the 100-win New York Yankees and the defending champion Houston Astros to win the AL pennant is now one win from this formerly tormented franchise’s ninth World Series crown.

Enrique Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the ninth for Los Angeles, which could become the first team to lose the World Series on its home field in back-to-back seasons since the New York Giants lost at the Polo Grounds to the Yankees in 1936 and 1937.

Devers added a big defensive play in the ninth when he slid to stop Manny Machado’s hard grounder at third before throwing across the diamond to get the Dodgers slugger for the second out. Craig Kimbrel then got Cody Bellinger on a fly to end it, leaving Puig in the on-deck circle.

Less than 17 hours after Max Muncy’s 18th-inning homer for the Dodgers ended the longest game in World Series history at 7 hours, 20 minutes, the teams were back on the field in Chavez Ravine.

Game 4 was only 3 hours, 57 minutes, but had at least as many dramatic twists.

Mark J. Terrill The Associated Press Boston’s Steve Pearce crunches a three-run double against the Dodgers in the ninth inning of Game 4.

David J. Phillip The Associated Press Boston’s Brock Holt rejoices after a ninth-inning double, a huge part of the decisive Game 4 rally.