By the time the 10th inning started at Fenway Park on Wednesday, Cleveland had already beaten the Tigers, so the Red Sox needed to win to avoid seeing their lead for the final wild card spot trimmed to less than two games.

Boston survived some anxious moments in the top of the 10th and then scored in the bottom of the frame to win 5-4. It allowed them to keep pace with everyone else in the AL wild card race, while peeling another day off the calendar.

Houston’s win over Texas and Seattle’s loss to Kansas City left the Red Sox tied with the Mariners for the fifth spot at 83-69.

If they finish tied — and there’s a lot of baseball to be played before that could happen — the two teams were 3-3 against each other in the regular season.

The next tiebreaker is intradivision record, pittin

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