Rays light up Lester, Byrd with long ball

Two things seem certain about Tampa Bay Rays youngster B.J. Upton: His once-ailing shoulder is close to, if not, 100 per cent, and he still manages to do something to upset his manager Joe Maddon.

Upton's three-run home run to left-centre field in the third inning propelled the heavy-hitting Rays to a 9-1 waxing of the hometown Boston Red Sox on Monday.

Evan Longoria, Rocco Baldelli and Carlos Pena also went deep off Red Sox starter Jon Lester and reliever Paul Byrd in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, which Tampa leads 2-1.

Upton's homer was his second in the best-of-seven ALCS and fifth of the post-season after he went deep just nine times in 145 regular-season games while battling shoulder woes.

Upton, 24, was also a source of frustration for Maddon, who benched him more than once for failing to run out ground balls.

The six-foot-three, 185-pound centre-fielder was at it again Monday when he was caught wandering off second base after advancing from first on a Pena bunt single.

Fortunately for Upton it didn't matter in the end as his home run was more than enough for Tampa Bay starter Matt Garza, who blanked the Red Sox for six innings.

Garza comes up big

The Rays  put the defending World Series champions in a post-season hole for the first time since they overcame a 3-1 deficit in last year's ALCS against Cleveland. Now Garza, who thought he was sent to baseball purgatory when he was traded to Tampa Bay from Minnesota last off-season, has brought them within two wins of their first AL pennant.

"When I first got traded, yes, there was a doubt. But walking into the clubhouse in spring training, it was like, 'We could actually pull this thing off,"' said Garza, the only Tampa Bay pitcher to lose in the first-round series against the Chicago White Sox.

"Everybody was on that one mission, and that was to win. We want to win now. We don't want to be the team that waits for later, we want to win now."

Andy Sonnanstine, who won his only start in the AL Division Series, will try to help Tampa Bay to a 3-1 series lead on Tuesday in Boston (8:07 p.m. ET).

Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield will be making his first start of the 2008 playoffs for Boston. He'll carry a lifetime 19-5 record versus the Rays into Game 4 and 5-2 career mark in league championship series.

The Rays bullpen — which entered Monday's contest with a sparkling 1.80 earned-run average in this post-season — one-hit Boston over the final three innings.

Lester, who was 3-0 with an ERA under 1.00 against Tampa Bay in the regular season, took it on the chin at Fenway Park, where the Red Sox had won seven of the previous nine meetings with their AL East rivals.

Scoreless string snapped

Pitching for the first time in a week, the left-hander wasn't sharp after a 1-2-3 first inning and saw his 2008 playoff scoreless streak snapped at 15 1/3 innings when Dioner Navarro's groundout scored Longoria with the first run of the game.

Lester, who hadn't allowed an earned run in four previous post-season outings, including last year's World Series clincher against Colorado, was removed after 5 2/3 frames and 96 pitches.

"I think some people come to expect you to go out there every single day and be a robot and do it," Trail, B.C., outfielder Jason Bay said. "Unfortunately, that's not the case."

But Byrd, a converted starter making his first relief appearance since the 2004 playoffs, didn't fare much better. He served up Baldelli's first home run of this post-season — a three-run blast in the eighth inning — and a solo shot to Pena in the ninth that made it 9-1.

The four homers in a game tied the ALCS home run record last matched by Boston in Game 2 against Tampa Bay on Saturday.

"Solo home runs are good, but three-run homers mean so much more. It put us up 4-0 and gave us all the confidence in the world," said Upton, whose sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning on Saturday lifted the Rays to a 9-8 win. "We feel the sky's the limit for us all year. To beat [Lester], and to beat him at Fenway, hopefully it'll have a snowball effect."

Towering shot

It is the first time in franchise history the Red Sox have allowed eight or more runs in consecutive playoff games.

Jason Bartlett singled and Akinori Iwamura doubled off the Green Monster before Upton hit a towering shot that cleared the wall and the Monster Seats atop it. One out later, Longoria hit his fourth home run of the post-season, tying a rookie record set by Miguel Cabrera in 2003.

"They come equipped with all the bells and whistles," Maddon said. "They feel like they belong here, and that's a big reason why they've been able to perform with calm and permit everybody see how good they are … Knowing them on a daily basis, it does not surprise me."

Boston leadoff hitter Jacoby Ellsbury went hitless in three at-bats Monday and is 0-for-14 in the series. But he did plate his team's lone run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh to score Jason Varitek. The Red Sox haven't been shut out in the playoffs since Game 5 of the 1918 World Series.