TAMPA, Fla. (Interstat) — Trevor Story delivered a tiebreaking single in a three-run ninth inning and the Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 6-3 on Saturday night to keep pace in a crowded American League playoff race.

The victory at George Steinbrenner Field was Boston’s eighth straight over Tampa Bay. The Red Sox remained two games behind the New York Yankees for the top AL wild card and are a game ahead of Cleveland and Houston for the second of those three spots.

With the game tied 3-3 in the ninth, Boston’s Ceddanne Rafaela reached second base on a fielding error by Rays third baseman Junior Caminero. After Jarren Duran struck out, Story lined a single to right field off reliever Jesse Scholtens (0-1) to score Rafaela. Alex Bregman followed with a single, and Masataka Yoshida drove in Story with another single. Romy Gonzalez then lifted a sacrifice fly to right to plate Bregman.

Garrett Whitlock (7-3) earned the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Aroldis Chapman worked a perfect ninth for his 31st save of the season, striking out one.

The game was a pitchers’ duel for much of the night. Boston left-hander Kyle Harrison turned in a strong start, allowing one run and four hits over six innings with five strikeouts. His counterpart, Tampa Bay’s Adrian Houser, also went six innings, giving up three runs and five hits.

Boston took an early lead in the third inning when Duran scored on a wild pitch by Houser. They added a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Bregman and another in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Nathaniel Lowe.

Tampa Bay chipped away, cutting the lead to 3-1 in the fourth on an RBI double by Jake Mangum. The Rays then tied it in the seventh against the Boston bullpen. Nick Fortes hit an RBI double, and Yandy Díaz followed with a run-scoring single.

Mangum led the Rays’ offense, going 3 for 4 with an RBI. Díaz added two hits and an RBI.

The Red Sox improved to 85-70, while the Rays dropped to 75-80, having lost four consecutive series.

The announced attendance was 10,046, and the game took 2 hours, 54 minutes to complete.

The teams conclude their three-game series on Sunday.