Kevin Kiermaier belted a tie-breaking three-run home run in the fourth inning as the Tampa Bay Rays moved to within one win of the American League Championship Series with an 8-4 victory over the New York Yankees on Wednesday.
Kiermaier felt his blast was the turning point in the contest which allowed the top seeded Rays to grab a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five second round series.
"To be quite honest I think my homer got us going and it snowballed from there," Kiermaier said. "I knew what I wanted to do from the first pitch and I was trying to execute it."
The Rays, who were designated the visiting team after being the "home" team for the first two games at the neutral site facility in Petco Park in San Diego, have now won two straight after being outslugged 9-3 in the opener.
The Rays can wrap up the series and advance to their second ALCS with a win in game four on Thursday. Tampa Bay's other ALCS appearance came in 2008, when they eventually lost in the World Series.
The series winner will meet either the Oakland A's or the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series starting Sunday.
"We got guys who can do it. When their names are called on they respond. It was a fun night to do it," said Kiermaier.
Charlie Morton pitched five solid innings and outfielder Randy Arozarena had three hits, reached base four times and had a home run in the win.
Yankees slugger Giancarlo Stanton belted his sixth home run of the playoffs with a two-run shot in the eighth.
Chad Pinder blasted a tying home run and Australian pitcher Liam Hendriks was stellar as the Oakland A's avoided elimination by rallying to defeat the Houston Astros 9-7.
Pinder went three-for-four and drove in four runs while Hendriks struck out four and allowed only one hit over three shutout innings to collect the win as the A's pulled within 2-1 in the best-of-five second-round series with game four Thursday.
"We're trying to just get to the next day," Pinder said. "That's what this game was about. It was a scrap but we get to tomorrow and that's all we can ask for."
In the National League, Atlanta's Dansby Swanson and Travis d'Arnaud hit home runs to give the Braves a 2-0 victory over Miami and put them on the brink of advancing to the MLB's final four.
The Braves, who haven't won the World Series since 1995, could complete a three-game sweep Thursday.
The Atlanta-Miami winner will face either the Padres or Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.
While the Braves used overpowering pitching, the A's won a slugfest with some relief help from Down Under.
Pinder blasted a three-run homer in the top of the seventh inning to lift the A's level at 7-7, the club matching a 31-year-old team record with five homers in a playoff game.
"That was awesome," Pinder said. "We came in there at 7-4. We had to come back. I was just looking for a good pitch and trying to put a good swing on it."
Pinder and Sean Murphy each hit a run-scoring sacrifice fly to right field in the eighth inning to give Oakland their final victory margin.
Closing relief ace Hendriks entered for Oakland in the seventh, the 31-year-old from Perth being asked to obtain the final nine outs -- triple his usual load -- to keep the A's season going.
In the ninth, Hendriks retired the top of the Astros' batting order 1-2-3 to complete the victory.
"He did a fantastic job. Time and time again, he has come through for us," Pinder said of Hendriks.
Tommy La Stella, Mark Canha and Matt Olson hit solo homers early for the A's while Houston's Jose Altuve homered early as well.
Marcus Semien smashed a solo homer in the fifth inning to give Oakland a 4-2 edge, but the Astros plated five runs in the bottom of the fifth, with Aledmys Diaz's two-run homer pulling the Astros level at 4-4.
George Springer was hit by a pitch, took second on an Altuve single and scored on Michael Brantley's single to give Houston the lead. Alex Bregman doubled to drive in Brantley and scored himself on Kyle Tucker's single for a 7-4 Astros' advantage.