Rays burn the midnight oil and even up ALCS against Red Sox

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Perez slides in for the winning run. 

Let’s go ahead and anoint this as the greatest game in the history of Tropicana Field. The Red Sox and Rays treated the country to a dramatic (and very long) night of playoff baseball. 

Back and forth, forth and back the teams went as Scott Kazmir and Josh Beckett turned the ALCS into homerun derby.

Evan Longoria hit the first statement homerun of the game, a two-run shot to answer Jason Bay’s two-run double and tie the game in the bottom of the first. It would be the first of three huge extra-base hits on the night for Longoria. Only an idiot could have possibly been concerned about his performance.

Then Dustin Pedroia, the little MVP that could, knocked a solo shot of his own out to left to give the Red Sox a 3-2 lead in the top of the third.

That didn’t last long, though, as Mr. Five-Tool himself, B.J. Upton hit a solo shot to tie it at three in the bottom of the third. The Rays would tack on another in the third and Grandpa Floyd bombed one out to deep center in the bottom of the fourth to give the Rays a 5-3 lead.

The Champs wouldn’t give up though. The Red Sox made the top of the fifth look like Josh Hamilton day at Yankee Stadium. Pedroia hit his second of the night and then Youkilis hit a solo shot to tie the game and send Kazmir to the showers. Then Jason Bay hit the Sox’ third solo shot of the inning off Grant Balfour to give Boston a 6-5 lead.

These two teams exchanged blows like Rocky and Apollo Creed all night, but the Rays held the 8-7 lead after the seventh inning.

After the first two Red Sox reached base in the top of the eighth, Dan Wheeler came in and got the clutch double-play ball out of Kevin Youkilis, leaving Dustin Pedroia on third with two outs. Wheeler then had a Bob Stanley moment, uncorking a wild pitch that allowed Pedroia to score from third and tie the game.

Unlike Stanley, however, Wheeler would find redemption.

Wheeler pitched a total of 3 1/3 innings, with the wild pitch being the only blemish. With a little help from David Price, Wheeler and the Rays got through the top of the 11^th inning tied with the Red Sox 8-8.

That set the stage for the bottom of the 11^th, when the Rays benefitted from Mike Timlin’s wildness. Boston’s veteran right-hander walked the first two Rays he faced. Joe Maddon then put the hit-and-run on with Jason Bartlett at the plate and Bartlett’s grounder to third advanced the runners and set up the Rays for a chance to win the game.

With pinch-runner Fernando Perez on third and Ben Zobrist on second, Terry Francona decided to intentionally walk Akinori Iwamura to load the bases and set up the force out at home or the inning-ending double play with one out. B.J. Upton came up and immediately fell behind in the count 0-2. Then Upton hit a shallow fly down the right-field line. Thanks to some blazing speed by Fernando Perez and an off-line throw by J.D. Drew, Upton recorded probably the shortest, and definitely the most important, sacrifice fly in Rays’ history.

There’s nothing like a little walk-off magic at the Trop to jump-start the Rays in this ALCS battle. What a long, crazy night. I am spent. I haven’t even had the chance to change the channel yet, but I can’t complain because Dumb and Dumber is on TBS. All I can say about tonight is that Dan Wheeler’s redemption after the wild pitch was on par with Lloyd Christmas’ redemption after driving across the country in the wrong direction.