American League Playoff Scores: J.D. Drew Homers in Ninth to Give Boston Red Sox 2-0 Series Lead Against Los Angeles Angels

J.D. Drew hit a two-run homerun off Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez in the top of the ninth to break a 5-5 tie and Jonathan Papelbon pitched a perfect bottom half of the frame to give the Boston Red Sox a 7-5 victory on Friday night and take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five playoff series.

Drew goy things started for the Red Sox in the first inning as he plated David Ortiz on a two-out double that moved Kevin Youkilis to third. Jason Bay followed with a three-run blast off Los Angeles starter Ervin Santana to give Boston a 4-0 lead.

Daisuke Matsuzaka retired the first two batters he faced in the bottom half of the first but then gave up three consecutive singles to Mark Teixeira, Vladimir Guerrero and Tori Hunter, the last scoring a run and it was 4-1.

Both pitchers settled down after the first inning and Santana looked to be cruising until he ran into two-out trouble once again in the fourth. After giving up a double to Alex Cora he served up a double to Jacoby Ellsbury that pushed Boston’s lead to 5-1 but the Angels countered with a two-out run of their own in the bottom half of the fourth as Chone Figgins singled home Juan Rivera to pull to within 5-2.

Matsuzaka then walked Teixeira and Guerrero to start the bottom of the fifth and Hunter followed with a single to make it 5-3 but the Red Sox right-hander worked out of trouble striking out Rivera, getting Howie Kendrick to fly out to center and then striking out Kendry Morales.

Boston turned to Hideki Okijima in the sixth and after pitching a perfect frame he ran into problems in the seventh, giving up consecutive singles to Teixeira and Guerrero before being lifted for Justin Masterson who then struck out Hunter before walking Rivera to load the bases. Masterson then struck out Kendrick but walked Mike Napoli to bring the Angels to within 5-4. Erick Aybar then struck out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eight Masterson returned to the hill but after surrendering a lead-off triple to Figgins the Red Sox handed the ball to their closer Jonathan Papelbon who got Garrett Anderson to foul out but Teixeira then hit a sacrifice fly to center that tied the game at 5-5.

Having lost a 5-1 lead and now facing the best closer in baseball the Red Sox didn’t pack it in though as David Ortiz led off the top of the ninth with a  double off Rodriguez and after Youkilis grounded out J.D. Drew delivered a long homerun to right center that gave Boston a 7-5 lead.

Papelbon then finished things off in the ninth to give the Red Sox the win and a 2-0 advantage in the best-of-five series.

The series will now shift to Boston where the Red Sox will host the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday at 7:17 p.m. ET with Josh Beckett facing Joe Saunders.

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