HOUSTON — Few things deflate a baseball team more than a blown save. A night of good work disappears in an instant and suddenly everybody realizes just how tired they are.

But the Red Sox found the will to survive the latest meltdown by their pitching staff, scoring two runs in the 12th inning to beat the Houston ­Astros, 7-5, on Sunday night.

Jackie Bradley Jr.’s RBI single was the difference as the Red Sox took two of three in the series to improve to 9-9. Heath Hembree pitched three scoreless innings for the win.

The Sox had not scored in eight consecutive innings before Hanley Ramirez led off the 12th inning with a single off Ken Giles. Travis Shaw also singled before Brock Holt put down the team’s first sacrifice bunt of the season.

Ryan Hanigan fouled off eight consecutive pitches before drawing a 13-pitch walk to load the bases. Bradley was next and he lined a single to right through a drawn-in infield for his second RBI of the game.

With two outs, Hanigan scored on a wild pitch with a headfirst dive across the plate, this by a 36-year-old who had caught the entire game.

The bottom of the inning brought more drama. Tyler White reached on an error by Shaw at third base before Carlos Gomez singled. But Hembree struck out Evan Gattis and Marwin Gonzalez to end a game that lasted 5 hours and 3 minutes.

After Red Sox starter Henry Owens managed only 3? innings, Matt Barnes, Junichi Tazawa, and Koji ­Uehara held the Astros scoreless for 4? innings.

Tazawa faced the first six hitters in Houston’s order and retired five of them. He has a 1.04 earned run average in 10 appearances.

Uehara was next. The 41-year-old righthander had not pitched since Monday. He ­allowed four runs in that game and manager John Farrell acknowledged two days later that he had overworked Uehara and needed to give him time off.

Refreshed, Uehara got three easy outs, striking out two. He handed a 5-3 lead to closer Craig Kimbrel.

Kimbrel got two outs before Carlos Correa doubled off the wall in right field. Colby Rasmus then crushed a 98-mile-per-hour fastball way out to right center field.

Rasmus had a game-changing grand slam Saturday against Clay Buchholz. Kimbrel put the ball in the same place, over the plate and in the lower third of the strike zone.

Kimbrel is a problem the Red Sox never expected to have. He has allowed five runs on five hits — two of them home runs — and five walks in 10 innings.

The Red Sox scored three runs in the first inning against Houston starter Scott Feldman aided by a call overturned on replay.

Mookie Betts led off with a single and took third when Dustin Pedroia doubled down the line in left field. Xander Bogaerts, back after missing Saturday’s game with a sore right wrist, grounded to first and Betts held.

The Astros intentionally walked David Ortiz to get to Ramirez and he accommodatingly grounded to shortstop. But the ball was hit too slowly to turn a double play and Betts scored.

The Red Sox asked for a review of the play, saying second baseman Jose Altuve did not touch the bag to force Ortiz. The call was overturned and the bases were loaded with one out.

Shaw, down 1 and 2 in the count, drew a seven-pitch walk to force in a run. Holt drove in another with a sacrifice fly.

The Sox scored two more runs against Feldman in the third inning as the Astros were again careless in the field.

Holt reached on a two-out infield single to second base and took second when Altuve threw the ball away. Hanigan drove in his first run of the season with a double over the head of George Springer, who was playing shallow in right field.

Bradley came out of a 3-for-24 slump with a double to right field.

Feldman allowed five runs, three earned, on eight hits and four walks over 4? innings. He has a career 7.15 earned run average in 14 appearances against the Sox — 10.21 in the last six.

Owens seemed determined to squander the run support. He lasted only 3? innings and somehow needed 86 pitches to get that far. In his season debut, Owens allowed three runs on five hits and an inexcusable four walks.

Gonzalez homered off Owens in the second inning. Springer doubled to start the third inning before Owens walked Correa and Rasmus on nine pitches.

White followed with a sacrifice fly to left field. Gattis drove in Correa with a two-out single.

When Owens was unable to field a tapper to the left side of the mound in the fourth inning, Farrell quickly came out of the dugout to summon Barnes.

Barnes pitched two scoreless innings aided by Tazawa getting two outs to leave two runners stranded in the sixth inning. Tazawa allowed a leadoff single by Correa in the seventh inning but retired the next three batters.

Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.