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Upton ends marathon game with walkoff

Oct 12, 2008 - 7:13 AM ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- Ironically, a shallow fly ball ended game full of home runs.

B.J. Upton hit a walk-off sacrifice fly in the 11th inning, lifting the Tampa Bay Rays to a 9-8 victory over the Boston Red Sox in Game Two of the American League Championship Series on Saturday.

Rookie Evan Longoria, Upton and Cliff Floyd all homered for Tampa Bay, which evened the best-of-seven series at one game apiece.

Game Three is Monday in Boston.

"I didn't want to necessarily (hit) in the air, but definitely in play. I knew in that situation, I couldn't strike out," said Upton, who fell behind 0-2 before lifting a shallow fly ball to right field.

"I wanted to put the ball in play and put a little bit of pressure on the defense, especially (with) Fernando (Perez) at (third) base. I knew either way, it was going to be a tough play for him and luckily I got the ball up in the air."

Dustin Pedroia hit a pair of home runs and scored the tying run on a wild pitch by Dan Wheeler in the eighth. Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis also homered for the Red Sox. The teams combined to tie a postseason record with seven home runs.

But the Rays, who led the major leagues in walk-off wins in the regular season with 11, avoided falling in a two-games-to-none hole with small ball.

Dioner Navarro drew a leadoff walk from Mike Timlin (0-1) and was replaced by Perez. Pinch hitter Ben Zobrist also walked, and the runners advanced on a groundout by Jason Bartlett.

Akinori Iwamura was walked intentionally to set the stage for Upton, who lifted an 0-2 offering to shallow right field. J.D. Drew caught the ball, but his throw to the plate was late as Perez scored the game-winning run.

Rays manager Joe Maddon inserted the speedy Perez as a pinch runner for that exact scenario.

"Like I said, in a straight-up race, I've got (Perez) over Seabiscuit," Maddon said. "I'm dating myself a bit. I'm sorry, but that's the first horse that came to mind."

Wheeler rebounded from his earlier gaffe by throwing 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Rookie David Price (1-0) - the Rays' seventh pitcher - got the final two outs of the 11th to pick up his first career win.

The No. 1 pick in the 2007 draft, Price was recalled from Class AAA Durham on September 14.

"Like I said, it's been like that all year, someone stepping up," said Longoria, who snapped out of an 1-for-16 skid by going 3-for-5 with three RBI.

"In October, there's different heroes every day," he said. "The biggest guy today was probably Pricey being able to come in and shut the door and get that win and Wheeler shutting the door."

Bay's RBI single in the sixth pulled Boston within 8-7, and Pedroia scored the tying run on a wild pitch two frames later. The scrappy second baseman singled and, after David Ortiz walked, advanced to third on a double play.

He then scored when Wheeler's pitch sailed over the outstretched glove of Navarro, who had a chance to throw out Pedroia but nonchalantly flipped the ball underhand and off-target.

Each team scored three runs in the fifth. Pedroia led off the frame with a blast off Rays starter Scott Kazmir and, two batters later, Youkilis chased the lefthander with a homer.

Grant Balfour entered, and Bay greeted him with a solo shot that put the Red Sox up, 6-5.

"We scored three in the fifth and wanted to give ourselves a realistic chance at having some semblance of order in our bullpen," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "They went about it a little different, went to their bullpen early, couldn't hold it."

Tampa Bay responded the bottom half as Upton walked, stole second and scored on a single to right by Carlos Pena. Longoria followed with a double and Pena avoided the tag of catcher Jason Varitek.

Longoria advanced on the throw and scored on Carl Crawford's single to make it 8-6.

The Red Sox thought they were in good hands with Josh Beckett on the mound, but his performance only raised more questions about his health. Beckett, who was making his second start in 19 days due to an oblique injury, was rocked for eight runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.

"Well, you know, he made some mistakes and he paid for them," Francona said. "He tried to throw a fastball into Floyd and he didn't get it in, his changeup wandered back over the plate to Longoria; tried to throw a fastball away to Upton, left it over the middle, and paid for all of them."

Kazmir was no better, as he allowed five runs and six hits in 4 1/3 frames.