Rays, Red Sox head to Boston tied 1-1 in ALCS

Terry Francona has called on relief pitcher Mike Timlin 323 times since he became manager of the Boston Red Sox.

He might be a little reluctant to point toward the bullpen to signal appearance No. 324 in the American League Championship Series.

Timlin walked Dioner Navarro and Ben Zobrist to lead off the bottom of the 11th inning, and three batters later served up a sacrifice fly to B.J. Upton that scored pinch-runner Fernando Perez for a 9-8 Tampa Bay Rays victory in Game 2, which started at 8:07 p.m. ET Saturday and ended five hours, 27 minutes later at 1:34 Sunday morning.

Timlin was kept off the Red Sox's roster for the AL Division Series, perhaps due to his poor performance in the regular season (5.66 earned-run average in 47 games), but Francona felt he needed to add another pitcher in this best-of-seven set.

Game 3 will be played at Boston's Fenway Park on Monday at 4 p.m. ET, with Tampa Bay's Matt Garza opposing Jon Lester, who didn't allow an earned run in 14 innings to the Los Angeles Angels in the division series.

"We did not want to go to Boston down 0-2," said Rays rookie third baseman Evan Longoria. "It's 1:30 in the morning and we pulled it out."

An 18-year veteran, Timlin came on after Javier Lopez, Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson and closer Jonathan Papelbon blanked the Rays for 5 2/3 in relief of the hittable Josh Beckett.

The right-hander threw just 10 of his 23 pitches for strikes in his first appearance since Sept. 23.

Protecting the plate

Upton, who had homered earlier, found himself in an 0-2 hole against Timlin but looking to protect the plate, lifted a fly ball the other way to J.D. Drew. But the outfielder's two-hop throw up the third-base line was too late to get the speedy Perez, who secured Tampa Bay's major league-best 12th walk-off win of the season.

"The main thing there is not to strike out," Upton said.

He redeemed himself after misjudging a fly ball to centre-field off the bat of Coco Crisp in the top of the ninth inning that went for a ground-rule double. Dan Wheeler struck out Jacoby Ellsbury to end the threat.

Wheeler tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings, striking out four, before top prospect David Price was summoned in the top of the 11th with Jed Lowrie on first base. He walked Drew on five pitches, but retired Mark Kotsay (strikeout) and Crisp (groundout) to earn his first career playoff victory.

"It's been like that all year, someone stepping up," Longoria said. "There's different heroes every day."

After Tampa Bay's James Shields and Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka engaged in a pitching duel in Friday's opener with the latter prevailing 2-0, the teams combined for 17 runs and 24 hits in Game 2.

They also tied a major league post-season record with seven combined home runs, while the Red Sox matched playoff marks with four dingers — Dustin Pedroia with two, Jason Bay and Kevin Youkilis. Pedroia tied a league individual record with his two homers.

He went deep twice against Rays starter Scott Kazmir in the third and fifth innings to give Boston a short-lived 6-5 lead and is hitting .571 (16-for-28) lifetime against the Tampa Bay left-hander. Pedroia was 2-for-21 in the post-season before homering off Kazmir.

Rays trio lights up Beckett

Cliff Floyd, Longoria and Upton cleared the fence for Tampa Bay.

Trailing 6-5 in the bottom of the fifth, the Rays scored three runs, highlighted by Longoria's one-out double off Beckett to put the home side ahead 7-6.

Longoria snapped out of a 0-for-13 funk in the post-season with a two-run homer off Beckett in the first inning to answer the Red Sox's two runs in the top of the frame. He also doubled in the third and led the Tampa offence with three hits, three runs scored and three runs batted in.

Beckett struggled for a second consecutive start (eight earned runs in 4 1/3 innings) and has allowed 12 runs on 18 hits in 19 1/3 innings in these playoffs after entering the post-season with a 6-2 career playoff mark and ERA under 2.00.

"We wanted Beckett to get through that fifth and set up our bullpen, and it didn't work," Francona said.

Kazmir began the night winless in four starts against Boston this season and his ERA of 9.00 rose after he was touched for five runs on nine hits in 4 1/3 frames.

Bay closed the Red Sox to within 8-7 with a two-out single in the sixth — the Trail, B.C., native's eighth RBI with two out in the 2008 post-season — and watched Pedroia tie the game two innings later when he scored on a Wheeler wild pitch.