BOSTON — Maybe tweak the rules just this once?

A tiny adjustment? The equivalent of letting a car get away with driving 70 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone?

Well, if David Price can’t get credited with the win in Sunday night’s American League Championship Series Game 2, he’ll just have to settle for the memories of the unlikely standing ovation he received at Fenway Park. And a Red Sox victory.

The veteran left-hander, his Octoberphobia one of the biggest narratives going in the sport, helped his team even up the semifinals at a game apiece by battling his way through a 7-5 Boston win over the defending-champion Astros. The series will continue Tuesday afternoon with Game 3 at Minute Maid Park.

Price, the first-overall selection of the 2007 amateur draft, just barely bettered his 2011 equivalent, Gerrit Cole — baseball’s first postseason matchup of such elite prospects — so that even though he remains winless (0-9) in 11 career playoff starts, his teams lifted their collective record to 1-10. He allowed four runs in 4 ²/₃ innings, finishing one out short of qualifying for the victory.

“We won. That’s my first team win as a starter. So if it’s baby steps, it’s baby steps,” Price said. “I expect to win. But I’m very happy that we won.”

“He pitched a great game,” said Mookie Betts, who contributed two doubles and a walk and scored two runs. “I think no matter what you say about him, he’s a great pitcher. … He’s a competitor, for sure. He has that dominant presence on the mound. And he showed it today.”

Price’s mortifying postseason history explained the warm reception that showered the 33-year-old as he departed with two outs in the fifth inning and Astros on first and second. Matt Barnes entered and struck out Marwin Gonzalez to squash the threat and prevent Price from suffering yet another loss. And the Red Sox’s bullpen took care of the rest, with Barnes getting credit for the win, to remind us, as we saw in their AL Division Series victory over the Yankees, that this team won’t go down quietly after winning 108 games in the regular season.

After a gruesome showing in the series-opening 7-2 loss Saturday night, the Sawx pounced on Cole with a two-run first inning. The shaky Price, who walked two batters in the top of the first then escaped that jam, saw the ’Stros tie the score in the top of the second when George Springer poked a two-out, two-run double to short right field.

When Gonzalez crushed a two-out, two-run, third-inning homer off Price — well over the Green Monster, estimated at 397 feet — to give the visitors a 4-2 edge, Red Sox Nation had every reason in the world to think it would be another long night, one that would put their favored club in a daunting 0-2 hole with the series headed to Houston.

Then came the twist: In the bottom of the third, the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out. Cole struck out Ian Kinsler for the second out, putting the onus on the light-hitting Jackie Bradley Jr. And the lefty hitter Bradley, known best for his defense, lofted a flyball the other way that hit the Monster on a fly, a few feet to the right of the foul pole, and scored all three runners for an instant — and permanent, it turned out — Bosox lead.

Price protected that edge with a 1-2-3 fourth inning, a critical shutdown inning. Then came the fifth, as his two-out walk to Tyler White (with Jose Altuve already on first) prompted his exit and his ovation — and a road map, maybe, to better times.

“I expect myself to be great in big moments, and I haven’t done that thus far in my career,” Price said. “But I came here to win, period. I came here to win a World Series and to do it multiple times. And that’s what I’m about.

“I put myself aside. This isn’t about me. I understand the narratives. I get that. I deserve those narratives. But this is bigger than David Price. This isn’t about me. This is about the Boston Red Sox.”

Baby steps in the most intense time on the calendar? Neither Price, the Red Sox’s $217 million man, nor his team can afford to be choosy about this redemption.