ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -Dustin Pedroia homered and Jon Lester retired his first nine batters, helping the Boston Red Sox take a 1-0 lead over the Tampa Bay Rays after three innings in Game 7 of the AL championship series Sunday night.
The winner hosts Philadelphia in Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.
Pedroia’s one-out shot in the first inning was the only hit off Matt Garza, who took the mound for Tampa Bay with something – perhaps cotton balls – stuffed in his ears to help drown out the noise at sold-out Tropicana Field.
The right-hander walked the next batter, David Ortiz, then retired seven in a row before hitting Pedroia just above the left elbow with a 96 mph fastball with two outs in the third. Garza fanned Ortiz to end the inning.
With the tarps covering nearly 5,800 seats in the upper deck removed for the second straight night, more than 40,000 fans packed Tropicana Field for a rematch of the starting pitchers from Game 3, won by Tampa Bay 9-1 at Fenway Park.
ing a pitch into the left-field stands.
It was Pedroia’s third homer and ninth run of the series.
Lester gave up two homers in falling behind 5-0 early in Game 3, but looked much sharper Sunday night. He struck out four in the first three innings, and the only hitter to get the ball out of the infield was B.J. Upton, who flied to deep right in the first.
The Red Sox were the eighth team to rally from a 3-1 deficit to force Game 7 of an LCS, and Boston is the only club to do it more than once. The Red Sox also battled back in 1986, 2004 and 2007, and went on to win the World Series the last two times.
Saturday night’s 4-2 victory in Game 6 improved the team’s record to 9-0 in ALCS elimination games under manager Terry Francona.
“Once you kind of dig yourselves in a hole, you either win or go home. And we’ve been fortunate, and they’re all different cases because they’re different teams,” Francona said before Sunday night’s game. “But all the teams have that same kind of common denominator that they don’t stop playing and they dig deep.”
The Rays were trying to extend a remarkable run that saw them win more than 70 games in a season for the first time, hold off the Red Sox to win their first AL East championship and make the playoffs for the first time.
Manager Joe Maddon was confident his team would not be overwhelmed by appearing in the franchise’s first Game 7.
ng a lot of things well. We play a pretty complete game, and I think we can beat you in a variety of different ways,” Maddon said. “But then again, it’s going to be reduced to pitching and defense like it always is for us.”
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