Red Sox Trot past A's in 11 innings

Trot Nixon kept Boston alive with two-run homer as Red Sox win 3-1. By Jimmy Golen

The Associated Press

BOSTON -- The Red Sox may have found an opponent more unlucky in the playoffs than they are.

Pinch-hitter Trot Nixon hit a two-run homer in the 11th inning, and the Red Sox took advantage of Oakland's disastrous fielding and baserunning to beat the Athletics 3-1 Saturday night and avoid elimination in their best-of-five postseason series.

Boston, which trails two games to one, managed just seven hits but forced a Game 4 on Sunday.

"This is what playoff baseball is all about. This is Fenway at its finest," Nixon said.

Oakland made four errors -- three in the second inning -- and then got two runners thrown out at the plate in a bizarre sixth inning that sent the umpires to their rulebooks and angered A's manager Ken Macha.

That left the scored tied 1-1 until the 11th -- the second time in three games the teams have needed extra innings.

Rich Harden -- the fifth Oakland pitcher -- came on to start the 11th and got Kevin Millar to pop out. Doug Mirabelli then singled to right and Nixon, batting for Gabe Kapler, hit a 1-1 pitch to straightaway center field.

Raising his fist in the air as he rounded the bases, Nixon was greeted at home plate by his teammates in a celebration reminiscent of the one that greeted the team's wild-card clincher -- the last time they had played at Fenway.

"We just wanted to get back to home," starter Derek Lowe said. "We have possibly the best home crowd in all of baseball. We really believe that we're still in this thing."

Scott Williamson, Boston's third pitcher, earned the win with one inning of perfect relief.

John Burkett pitches today against Tim Hudson. A Red Sox win would send the teams back to Oakland for Game 5, and Pedro Martinez probably would face Barry Zito for a chance to advance to the AL championship series.