ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Jason Varitek snapped an 0-for-14 slide with a tiebreaking, sixth-inning solo homer as the Boston Red Sox took a 4-2 lead over the Tampa Bay Rays after six innings of Game 6 of the AL championship series on Saturday night.
Kevin Youkilis homered off James Shields and hit an RBI grounder for the Red Sox. Struggling ace Josh Beckett allowed two runs and four hits before Hideki Okajima relieved.
B.J. Upton tied an AL record with his seventh home run of the postseason for Tampa Bay, which led the series three games to two and would earn its first trip to the World Series with a win. If it’s needed, Game 7 of the ALCS would be Sunday night.
The winner of the ALCS begins the World Series at home Wednesday night against the well-rested Philadelphia Phillies, who won the NL pennant over the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games.
eld. he tied Troy Glaus (2002) with his seventh homer in a single postseason, one behind record-holders Barry Bonds (2002) and Carlos Beltran (2004).
Jason Bartlett’s solo shot off Beckett in the fifth inning made it 2-all before Boston scored twice in the sixth, finishing Shields with Varitek’s homer and David Ortiz’s RBI single off J.P. Howell.
Howell prevented more damage in the sixth when he struck out Youkilis with two runners on to end the inning.
Youkilis led off the second inning with his drive into the left center-field seats off Shields, who gave up four runs and nine hits in 5 2-3 innings. He gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead in the third when he grounded out after Dustin Pedroia walked and raced to third on Ortiz’s double down the right-field line.
Shields walked the next two batters, J.D. Drew and Jason Bay, loading the bases with two outs. The right-hander, who lost Game 1 despite only allowing two runs in 7 1-3 innings, escaped by retiring Mark Kotsay on a flyout.
The Red Sox, trying to stave off elimination for the second straight game, rallied from a 7-0, seventh-inning deficit to win Game 5 by 8-7 at Fenway Park on Thursday night, the biggest postseason comeback since 1929.
TBS had technical difficulties that prevented it from televising the first 20 minutes of Game 6.
ena was batting in the bottom of the first. Pena walked, and then the network showed a replay of Upton’s homer.
“Two circuit breakers in our Atlanta transmission operations tripped, causing the master router and its backup – which are necessary to transmit any incoming feed outbound – to shut down,” TBS spokesman Sal Petruzzi said in a statement.
“This impacted our live feed from being distributed to any of the other networks in the Turner portfolio and caused the delay in our coverage,” Petruzzi said. “Both our primary and backup routers were impacted by this problem. We apologize to baseball fans for this mishap that caused a delay in our coverage.”
Major League Baseball spokesman Rich Levin said MLB was unaware there was a problem until the broadcast failed to come on the air. No consideration was given to delaying the start of the game because the starting pitchers already had warmed up, Levin said.
The game was delayed for 15 minutes after the third inning when plate umpire Derryl Cousins left with a bruised collarbone. Cousins was struck by a foul ball hit by Varitek in the second, but remained in the game until the delay.
After the bottom of the third, Cousins and crew chief Tim McClelland talked in front of the Tampa Bay dugout. McClelland then called the Rays off the field and Cousins departed with Tampa Bay trainer Ron Porterfield.
s were negative and Cousins had a bruised collarbone.
McClelland, who had been working first base, put on his gear to work the plate and took over there when play resumed.
Sam Holbrook moved from second to first, Brian O’Nora shifted from third to second, Brian Gorman moved from left to third base and Alfonso Marquez remained in right field. The game continued without an umpire working left field.
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