ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Dustin Pedroia hit two early home runs, then dashed home on Tampa Bay reliever Dan Wheeler’s wild pitch in the eighth inning to leave the Boston Red Sox and Rays tied at 8 after 10 innings Saturday night in Game 2 of the AL championship series.
After Boston won the ALCS opener 2-0, the teams got into a game of home run derby at Tropicana Field. They tied the postseason record by combining for seven homers – all in the first five innings.
The clubs seesawed the whole evening, with starters Josh Beckett and Scott Kazmir both struggling, and it was past 1 a.m. when the game went to the 11th inning.
Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and Cliff Floyd homered for Tampa Bay. The Red Sox homered three times in the fifth inning, with Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis connecting off Kazmir and Jason Bay tagging Grant Balfour.
Down 8-6, the defending World Series champion Red Sox rallied within a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Bay.
oia led off the eighth with a single against Chad Bradford and reliever Trever Miller walked David Ortiz.
Wheeler took over and got Youkilis to ground into a double play. With Bay at the plate, Wheeler threw a pitch over the glove of All-Star catcher Dioner Navarro that went to the backstop. Navarro played the carom, but made an off-target, underhand toss to Wheeler covering the plate that allowed Pedroia to score his fourth run of the game.
Boston threatened again in the ninth when Coco Crisp hit a two-out double that sailed over Upton’s head in center field. Wheeler struck out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the inning, and pitched a perfect 10th.
After Beckett left, Red Sox relievers Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima kept the Red Sox in the game, combining for 3 2-3 scoreless innings. Justin Masterson began the ninth, Jonathan Papelbon finished it and worked the 10th.
Papelbon and the Red Sox got a scare in the 10th when Carl Crawford hit a line drive up the middle that struck Papelbon. It wasn’t clear whether it struck his back or side or glove, and the ball deflected to Pedroia at second base for an out.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona ran out of the dugout to check on Papelbon, but the All-Star closer waved him off. Papelbon extended his scoreless streak to 22 innings overall in postseason play.
road. The Rays had baseball’s best home record this season.
The series shifts to Fenway Park for Game 3 Monday, with left-hander Jon Lester pitching for Boston and right-hander Matt Garza taking the ball for Tampa Bay.
Basketball Hall of Famer Dick Vitale, a Rays season ticket holder since the club’s inaugural season in 1998, threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Held hitless for six innings in the Game 1 loss, the Rays came out swinging – and connecting – against a postseason ace who has struggled this October.
Longoria hit a two-run homer in the first inning. Upton launched a solo shot in the third and Floyd homered in the fourth.
Beckett allowed eight runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings. Carlos Pena’s RBI single and Longoria’s run-scoring double finished the Boston starter, and Crawford hit an RBI single on Javier Lopez’s first pitch for an 8-6 lead in the fifth.
Upton continued his recent power surge. After hitting nine homers in 531 at-bats during the regular season, he’d connected four times in 24 at-bats during the playoffs.
Bay had a two-run double in the Boston first.
Beckett began the night 3-0 with a 2.70 in league championship series play, with one of the wins coming for Florida in the 2003 NLCS. He was 6-2 overall in postseason and had won five consecutive decisions since the Marlins lost to the Yankees in Game 3 of the 2003 World Series.
he also was coming off the shortest playoff start of his career – five innings – against the Los Angeles Angels in Game 3 of this year’s ALDS. He allowed four runs on a postseason career-high nine hits and walked four, departing with the score tied at 4.
After winning the opener, Ortiz said the Rays had different looks on their face than during the regular season, suggesting they may have been feeling the pressure of being in the ALCS for the first time.
“I agree with him,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said before Game 2.
“For the first time yesterday, I thought we were impacted a little bit by the event. I’d like to think we’ll get beyond that today,” Maddon said, noting that it was most evident in the way his young team chased pitches from Daisuke Matsuzaka in the opener.
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