October 10, 2021: Christian Vázquez hits latest walk-off homer in Red Sox playoff history to beat Rays

Christian Vázquez’s home run into the Green Monster seats atop Fenway Park’s left-field wall on October 10, 2021, off Luis Patiño of the Tampa Bay Rays, was the sixth walk-off home run in Boston Red Sox playoff history.1 That it came in the bottom of the 13th inning made it the latest-ever Red Sox walk-off postseason homer – by inning. The famous Carlton Fisk home run in Game Six of the 1975 World Series was in the bottom of the 12th. So was the one David Ortiz hit in Game Four of the 2004 American League Championship Series.2

This was Game Three of the best-of-five 2021 AL Division Series. Each team had won one game, Tampa Bay winning, 5-0, in Game One and Boston winning, 14-6, in Game Two. The game began at 4:07 on Sunday afternoon.

The Red Sox started with a home run and ended with a home run. Trade deadline acquisition Kyle Schwarber hit the second pitch he saw for a leadoff homer into the seats atop the wall in left-center. His victim was starter Drew Rasmussen, the first of nine pitchers Tampa Bay used in the game. Schwarber’s second postseason home run of 2021 and the eighth of his career was a response to the two-run homer in the top of the inning hit into the Rays bullpen by left fielder Austin Meadows off Boston starter Nathan Eovaldi.3 Before the game was over, manager Alex Cora and the Red Sox had used seven pitchers.

Schwarber’s homer was the fourth time in franchise history a Red Sox batter had hit a leadoff home run in a postseason game. The first one had been 118 years earlier, when Patsy Dougherty homered in Game Two of the first-ever World Series between the American and National Leagues.4

Every one of the first six outs Eovaldi recorded in the game was by strikeout. Despite Meadows’ early home run, the 31-year-old righty settled down enough for Boston to go ahead. The Red Sox took a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third when the first three batters singled off Rasmussen – second baseman Christian Arroyo, first baseman Schwarber, and center fielder Kiké Hernández. The Hernandez RBI single prompted Rays manager Kevin Cash to call on reliever Josh Fleming. Third baseman Rafael Devers singled up the middle for the inning’s second run.

There was an amusing moment in the top of the fourth inning featuring first baseman Schwarber. In the third, he had misplayed a routine groundball, flipping underhanded to Eovaldi covering first base – but the ball sailed several feet over a leaping Eovaldi’s head. An error, but not a costly one. The next inning – the fourth – Schwarber fielded another grounder and again fed the ball to Eovaldi, but this time it was actually to the Red Sox pitcher. Schwarber then raised both arms in mock triumph, gave a dramatic fist-pump, and tipped his cap to the crowd.

The first Boston batter in the bottom of the fifth was Hernández, who greeted the fourth Rays pitcher, Pete Fairbanks, with a solo home run over everything in left-center. It was Hernández’s 10th homer in 62 career postseason games and his second in two games. Following a five-hit performance in Game Two, he had hits in seven consecutive plate appearances, tying the major-league postseason record.5

Cora took out Eovaldi and turned the game over to his bullpen in the sixth. The Red Sox cycled through relievers, and Hansel Robles (their fifth pitcher of the game) started the top of the eighth with a 4-2 lead, when the Rays rallied. Twenty-year-old rookie shortstop Wander Franco homered to lead off. Meadows doubled, putting the tying run in scoring position.

At first, Robles seemed to cool matters down. Vásquez – who had come in behind the plate after pinch-hitting for starting catcher Kevin Plawecki in the sixth – fielded veteran Nelson Cruz’s tapper and took the out at first, as Meadows moved to third.

Yandy Diaz had hit for starting first baseman Ji-Man Choi when the Red Sox brought in left-handed reliever Josh Taylor in the sixth. Remaining in the game to play first, Diaz struck out against the righty Robles in the eighth.

After Diaz’s strikeout, however, right fielder Randy Arozarena doubled to center, tying the game, 4-4. Garrett Whitlock relieved Robles, intentionally walked center fielder Kevin Kiermaier, and struck out catcher Mike Zunino.

It remained tied for several innings. All the Red Sox managed was a walk in the eighth and a single in the ninth. Boston’s Nick Pivetta, who had been penciled in as the Game Four starter, replaced Whitlock and pitched the rest of the game for the Red Sox – four full innings, more than twice as much as any of the other 13 relievers for either side. He struck out seven batters.

Neither side really threatened in the 10th, 11th, or 12th. After walking the leadoff batter in the top of the 11th, Pivetta struck out three in a row, all on strikes.

To begin the top of the 13th, Pivetta struck out the always-dangerous Cruz, who had hit his 18th career postseason homer in Game One.6 Diaz then singled, and one out later, Kiermaier hit a 3-and-2 pitch to right field. The ball hit off the bullpen wall, struck the warning-track dirt, bounced up, caromed off Hunter Renfroe’s chest, and popped into the Boston bullpen.

Diaz, running on the pitch with two outs and a full count, was already across home plate and it appeared the Rays had taken the lead. But the umpires invoked Rule 5.06(b)(4)(H) – “If a fair ball not in flight is deflected by a fielder and goes out of play, the award is two bases from the time of the pitch,” explained plate umpire and crew chief Sam Holbrook.7 Diaz was placed back at third base.

Had a similar play gone against the Red Sox, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote, “Sox fans would riot.”8 When everything settled down, there were runners on second and third with two outs. Zunino struck out swinging.

“I got a lot of snap and crackle, but no pop,” said Kiermaier after the game. “For the ball to bounce off a wall and hit a player and go over, I just can’t believe that’s a ground-rule double.”9 Several felt the rule should be changed. Diaz put it in perspective: “It’s just part of the game. We had plenty of opportunities to score, but we just didn’t.”10

Patiño had retired the Red Sox in order in the 12th, but Boston broke through in the bottom of the 13th. Designated hitter J.D. Martinez led off with a fly out to deep right-center. Renfroe drew a walk on six pitches.

On the first pitch he saw, a 96-MPH fastball, Christian Vázquez homered into the first row of the Green Monster seats in left-center and won the game. Having a team’s leadoff batter homer and its last batter both homer in a walk-off had never happened before in a postseason game.

The final was 6-4. Fittingly, Pivetta got the win.

“It’s a big moment for us, a big win,” Vázquez said. “I think we play for these emotions. It’s October, and anything can happen in October. It’s fun.”11

The Red Sox won the next night’s Game Four in a walk-off, too, this time kicked off by Vázquez, who singled to lead off the bottom of the ninth in a 5-5 tie. He was advanced to second on Arroyo’s sacrifice bunt. Pinch-hitter Travis Shaw singled to third, Vázquez reaching third on the play. Danny Santana came in to run for Vázquez. Hernández hit a sacrifice fly to left-center and Santana scored with ease. The Red Sox advanced to the ALCS but were beaten by the Houston Astros in six games.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Ray Danner and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Christian Vázquez, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS202110100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2021/B10100BOS2021.htm

Highlights of the game may be seen on YouTube at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb5wLlXN7aU

Thanks to SABR’s Jacob Pomrenke for providing a list of relevant postseason home runs. Of the 56 total walk-offs, 10 were at Yankee Stadium, with Fenway Park ranking second with six.

Notes

1 The five prior postseason walk-off home runs by the Red Sox were: Carlton Fisk (Game Six of the 1975 World Series), Trot Nixon (Game Three of the 2003 American League Division Series), David Ortiz (Game Three of the 2004 ALDS), Ortiz (Game Four of the 2004 ALCS), and Manny Ramirez (Game Two of the 2007 ALDS). With two such homers, Ortiz is tied with Bernie Williams and Carlos Correa for the most in major-league history.  

2 The Fisk homer brought that game to an end after 4 hours and 1 minute. The Ortiz one came at 5:02. The Vázquez homer came at 5:14.

3 Schwarber had also homered in Boston’s AL wild-card game win over the New York Yankees on October 5. He hit one more postseason home run with the Red Sox in 2021, a grand slam off José Urquidy of the Houston Astros in Game Three of the AL Championship Series. Through 2024, Schwarber had hit 21 career postseason home runs in 69 games with the Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies, ranking fourth all-time behind Manny Ramírez (29), José Altuve (27), and Bernie Williams (22).

4 The other two were by Johnny Damon (Game Four of the 2004 World Series), and Dustin Pedroia (Game One of the 2007 World Series).

5 Gary Phillips, “A Tough (Correct) Call and a Walk-Off Homer Have the Rays on the Brink,” New York Times, October 10, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/10/sports/baseball/red-sox-rays.html.

6 Cruz finished the 2021 season with 449 career home runs. He retired after the 2023 season with 464 lifetime homers.

7 Dan Shaughnessy, “It’s Beginning to Feel Like a Magical Run,” Boston Globe, October 11, 2021: C1, C5.

8 Peter Abraham, “Crazy Bounce, ‘Very Simple’ Rule,” Boston Globe, October 11, 2021: C5. “Once the ball hit the wall,” Holbrook explained, “it was no longer in flight. … You cannot catch the ball off the wall” and have it be considered an out. The only question was: Did Renfroe intentionally swat the ball. A video review showed nothing to suggest that. The Associated Press quoted Holbrook as saying, “There’s no ‘he would have done this, would have done that.’ It’s just flat-out in the rule book, it’s a ground-rule double.” See Associated Press, “Obscure, Controversial Play Saves Red Sox In ALDS Game 3 Win over Rays,” New York Post, October 10, 2021.  https://nypost.com/2021/10/10/obscure-controversial-play-saves-red-sox-in-alds-win-over-rays/. Kevin Cash knew the rule; he’d seen it happen once before, during a July 26, 2019, game against Toronto. A ball had bounced off Rays left fielder Tommy Pham and into the stands.

9 Phillips, “A Tough (Correct) Call.”

10 Phillips, “A Tough (Correct) Call.”

11 Alex Speier, “Lucky 13,” Boston Globe, October 11, 2021: C1.