In a showdown of All-Star sluggers Chris Tierney Jersey , Nelson Cruz had more RBIs, but J.D. Martinez had more help.

Martinez homered and drove in five, and the Boston Red Sox rallied from a five-run deficit to beat the Seattle Mariners 14-10 on Friday despite a monster night from Cruz.

Cruz had a pair of three-run homers and drove in seven, but the Mariners still lost their season-worst fifth straight game, including three earlier this week at Yankee Stadium. Seattle led 4-0 and 10-5 before a wild Red Sox rally fueled by RBIs from eight different players.

”That’s some fight. We’ve got a great group in here and that was a good one for us,” said Mitch Moreland, who had three hits including a triple as the Red Sox set a season-high with 20 hits.

Martinez went 4 for 5, including a two-run homer in the sixth and two doubles as he and his teammates avenged a 1-0 loss at Seattle against Wade LeBlanc six days earlier. LeBlanc started again Friday but did not fare so well in Boston.

”He pitched a great game against us last time. We all had a little chip on our shoulder coming into today,” said Martinez, who has 23 homers.

Reliever Matt Barnes (1-2) got the win with one scoreless inning, and Craig Kimbrel pitched the ninth.

Juan Nicasio (1-4) took the loss, allowing five runs on four hits in one-third of a lousy seventh inning.

”We were in control after a crazy first inning. We banged it around and they banged it around some, but our guys kept tacking on there. Just couldn’t hold them off at the end,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said.

The only flaw to the second half of the game for Boston: shortstop Xander Bogaerts left in the seventh with a sprained index finger on his left hand.

After Cruz put Seattle up 3-0 in the first with his 19th home run, Ryon Healy added a solo shot during Seattle’s four-run first inning as the Mariners got to knuckleballer Steven Wright. Seattle added two more off Wright in the second after Boston’s five-run bottom of the first.

Despite allowing 10 runs on 10 hits, Wright got a no-decision.

”I might go buy a lottery ticket now because that never happens,” Wright said.

Seattle scored four in the fourth, including Cruz’s second shot of the game, but Boston’s bullpen shut down Seattle the rest of the way while the Mariners’ imploded.

”Tough one,” Cruz said. ”It’s a shame because the pitchers have been doing a really good job. They’ve been throwing the ball with consistence, but it happens.”

Rafael Devers singled in a run in the fifth Womens Evander Kane Jersey , and then Martinez homered off Nick Vincent to center in the sixth to pull Boston within 10-8. Mitch Moreland followed with a triple just beyond the reach of diving right fielder Mitch Haniger, and Bogaerts drove in Moreland with an infield single

Barnes struck out the side in the seventh, and then Boston got to Nicasio. Devers singled to lead off, Blake Swihart singled with one out and Nicasio walked Mookie Betts to load the bases. Andrew Benintendi blooped a single into shallow center to bring in Devers and tie it at 10.

Swihart was nearly picked off third as Benintendi scored, but he slid under the tag after a strong throw by center fielder Guillermo Heredia. Seattle did not challenge the close play, and Martinez followed with a two-run single.

Nick Rumbelow later allowed Benintendi to score on a wild pitch, and Eduardo Nunez added a pinch-hit RBI single.

BIG BATS

The Red Sox have come from behind in 22 of their 51 wins. The 14 runs tied their season scoring high and the 20 hits were four more than they had in a game this season.

”It was a weird game,” Benintendi said. ”It’d be easy to give up in that situation and just kind of coast through the game, but we kept fighting and putting good at-bats together all throughout the lineup.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mariners: Activated RHP Vincent (strained right groin) from the 10-day DL and optioned RHP Ryan Cook to Triple-A Tacoma.

Red Sox: Benintendi needed a minute to collect himself after running hard into the Green Monster on a double by Denard Span.

UP NEXT

Mariners: RHP Mike Leake (7-4, 4.47 ERA) gets his second straight start against the Red Sox after taking the loss Sunday in Seattle, allowing five runs on eighth hits in six innings.

Red Sox: LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (9-1, 3.59) has won a career-high six straight starts, including Boston’s 9-3 victory over the Mariners in Seattle on Sunday.

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Four of the five teams that gave up the fewest points during the regular season are the last four left with a shot at the Super Bowl, something that had never happened since the NFL-AFL merger nearly a half-century ago.

And three of the four toughest to gain yards against are still around, too.

Still think that all a team needs to succeed in the modern game is an elite QB? Go ahead and take a close look at Sunday’s matchups for the conference championship games.

Sure, Tom Brady (assuming his injured right hand is good to go) and the New England Patriots will be playing for the AFC title, just like they always do, but they’ll be going up against Blake Bortles and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Over in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles will send Nick Foles out to face the Minnesota Vikings and Case Keenum, hardly a marquee matchup between quarterbacks, and one set up by injuries to other signal-callers.

What this quartet of teams does have in common is solid defense Authentic Joe Pavelski Jersey , showing once again that while everyone is paying so much attention to one side of the ball, it’s the other that might truly matter the most. The more league rules and officiating tend to favor offenses, the more figuring out ways to slow that down is imperative.

”When you have a defense that can shut that type of firepower down,” said Brian Robison, a linebacker on the Vikings defense that ranked No. 1 in yards and points allowed, ”it allows you to win ballgames.”

Minnesota gave up 15.8 points per game. Jacksonville was No. 2 at 16.8, followed by No. 4 Philadelphia’s 18.4 and No. 5 New England’s 18.5.

”There’s teams that have really good defenses that aren’t talked about,” Patriots linebacker Kyle Van Noy said. ”We’re one of them.”

It’s the first time since the 1970 merger there has been that sort of defensive dominance among the NFL’s final four. The closest was at the end of the 2010 season, when teams that ranked No. 1 (Steelers), No. 2 (Packers), No. 4 (Bears) and No. 6 (Jets) in points allowed reached the conference title games.

”The most heralded guys on the field are the quarterbacks. So I would say, nine times out of 10, your detail goes into your offensive planning and things like that,” said Jacksonville’s leading tackler, Telvin Smith, who returned a fumble 50 yards for a touchdown last weekend. ”Offense sells tickets, and defense wins championships. I’m happy I’m on the defensive side.”

He is part of a young, talented and speedy D that rose to prominence quickly via a combination of shrewd drafting (linebackers Smith and Myles Jack, defensive ends Yannick Ngakoue and Dante Fowler Jr., cornerback Jalen Ramsey) and free-agent signings that panned out (defensive lineman Calais Campbell, cornerback A.J. Bouye Joe Thornton Jersey , safeties Barry Church and Tashaun Gipson).

Take a look at the rankings in various regular-season categories related to defense, and you can’t miss the Jaguars. That helps explain how they made it this far with Bortles, whose 84.7 rating ranked 22nd among QBs with at least 100 pass attempts and whose 13 interceptions were exceeded by only six players.

Campbell tied for second in NFL with 14.5 sacks, while Ngakoue added 12 and led the league by forcing six fumbles. Bouye tied for third with six interceptions, while Ramsey, Gipson and Church each had four. As a unit, the Jaguars were No. 2 in yards allowed at 286.1, trailing the No. 1 Vikings (275.9), with the Eagles (306.5) at No. 4. The Jaguars were also second in sacks and total takeaways, while they topped the NFL with seven defensive TDs.

Exceptional defense can carry a team far: In nine of the last 10 seasons, the No. 1 or No. 2 team in points allowed participated in a conference championship game. The exception was 2015, when the Seahawks led the league in that category but lost in the divisional round, and the Bengals ranked second but lost in the wild-card round.

”Now it’s down to, `May the best defense win,”’ Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham said. ”We each get to showcase what we can do.”

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AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell in Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Kyle Hightower in Foxborough, Massachusetts; Mark Long in Jacksonville, Florida; and Rob Maaddi in Philadelphia contributed to this report.

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