Dramatic home runs were the rule of the day, all day. A rundown:

-- The Rays staved off elimination in their ALDS showdown against the Red Sox when Jose Lobaton drilled a ninth-inning home run off Boston closer Koji Uehara, who only gave up one home run in his final 51 regular-season appearances.

Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon described the blast in his postgame press conference, in a way only Joe Maddon can: "I swear I was looking down on my card and you're preparing for what's going to happen. Their pitchers are so good. And then I hear that thing you hear on the radio back in the day when you're listening to the Cardinals on KMOX, laying on the floor in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, that knock. And look up and the ball is going towards the tank, which nobody hits home runs there. Nobody does. How about that? It's incredible. Jose does have a flair for the dramatic. He's done that a couple of times now. A walk‑off triple, two walk‑off homers. It's incredible what he's done. What an interesting, wonderful game to stay solvent with."

That gave the Rays a 5-4 victory and extended the series to a fourth game Tuesday. And, of course, they were only in position to win the game in the ninth because of the dramatic three-run home run Evan Longoria hit off Boston ace Clay Buchholz in the fifth inning that tied the game at 3. Buchholz spent much of the year on the disabled list, but he only gave up four home runs in 108 1/3 innings this season.

Maddon, again: "Buchholz is pitching his typical game here. We cannot do anything with him. We get some guys on base, he would make a pitch, and then finally Longo got it, finally Longo got him. And then it ties it up right there and all of a sudden it's a different world. Truly, Longo has done that in the past. It's something, I don't want to say experiences in baseball, you've come to expect that from him on moments. To sit there, we've been through a lot of stuff around here for the last several years, that ranks right up there with the best stuff, obviously."

-- In Los Angeles, Dodgers leadoff man Carl Crawford hit solo home runs in each of his first two at-bats, but by the time Juan Uribe finished rounding the bases in the bottom of the eighth inning, Crawford's exploits were mere footnotes.

Uribe and his Dodger teammates closed out Atlanta in their NLDS when the third baseman drilled a towering two-run homer off setup man David Carpenter with no outs in the eighth. Uribe was sent up to the plate with orders to sacrifice bunt Yasiel Puig (who had doubled to lead off the inning) from second to third base.

But he failed twice, so he was given the green light to swing away. That he did. Carpenter left a curveball hanging over the inner half of the plate, and Uribe just crushed it way over the fence in left field. Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen closed out the 4-3 win for Los Angeles, and the Braves -- who won 96 games this season -- went back home for the winter.

-- In Pittsburgh, Michael Wacha's flirtation with a no-hitter -- the Pirates managed only one base knock all game, the solo homer by Pedro Alvarez in the eighth inning -- was the story in the Cardinals' season-saving 2-1 victory.

But Matt Holliday provided the entirety of St. Louis' offense in the sixth inning with his two-run home run off Pirates starter Charlie Morton, right after Carlos Beltran drew a lead-off walk. The Cardinals only got one other runner past second base the whole game.

"Charlie pitched extremely well. I think the cowboys say he drew a tough bull today," Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said after the game. "He navigated through their lineup extremely efficiently. The sinker was working, the breaking ball was working. Holliday barreled the one ball."

The best-of-five series is tied, 2-2, with the final game in St. Louis on Wednesday.

-- In the A's 6-3 victory against the Tigers, the first game of the afternoon, Oakland pushed its lead to 2-0 on Josh Reddick's solo home run in the third inning. Then, after Detroit scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, 3-3, the A's dipped into the power well again.

With one out, Brandon Moss pulled a line-drive home run into the right-field stands. And, after Yoenis Cespedes singled, Seth Smith hit an opposite-field homer to give Oakland a 6-3 lead that would hold up the rest of the way. All three blasts came off Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez, who had only given up nine home runs in 182 regular-season innings.

"With their whole staff, you're looking for a mistake and hope you capitalize on it," Smith said in his postgame presser. "And you will miss 'em sometimes, but fortunately for me, I was able to get the barrel to it. The fastball right there, and 3‑1, and I don't think Yoenis Cespedes being on first hurt anything, with his speed and things that he can do."

In the first two games of the series, the A's had only managed three runs and 11 hits. On Monday, they had six runs and 10 hits.

"In all truth, these guys are really good, all of 'em. Every at‑bat is a battle," Moss said. "It's true. It feels like it and it's true. I've been two strikes almost every single at‑bat. These guys are good at gettin' ahead, and they do a good job of pitching you tough. In all honesty, I'm just trying to get a mistake, anything. So right there, I swung over a couple of pitches, and he left a change‑up up and stayed back long enough to hit it."

The A's lead the series two games to one.

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