ALCS Game One: Daisuke Matsuzaka Pitches Boston Red Sox Past Tampa Bay Rays

Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched seven innings of four-hit ball, allowing no runs while striking out nine, Kevin Youkilis went 3-4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI and Jonathan Papelbon tossed a perfect ninth inning as the Boston Red Sox went on the road and took Game One of the best-of-seven ALCS agaist the Tampa Bay Rays 2-0 on Friday night.

Both pitchers looked shaky in the first inning as Tampa starter James Shields was staring a second and third situation before striking out J.D. Drew to end the top of the frame and Matsuzaka walked the bases loaded before getting Cliff Floyd to ground out to second.

Shields and Matsuzaka then settled down and they matched each other inning by inning until the fifth when Jason Bay led off for the Red Sox with a walk and moved to third when Mark Kotsay followd with a double. Jed Lowrie then lifted a sacrifice fly to right that plated Bay and moved Kotsay to third with one out but Shields got Jason Varitek to ground out to second and Jacoby Ellsbury to pop out  to short to end the inning with Boston in front 1-0.

Matsuzaka continued to roll for the Red Sox and had a no-hitter through six innings but gave up a lead-off single to Carl Crawford in the seventh and Floyd followed with a single to right to put runners at the corners with no outs. Dioner Navarro then flew out to short left, Gabe Gross struck out swinging and Jason Bartlett grounded to Lowrie at short who went to second for the force to end the inning,

In the top of the eighth Dustin Pedroia picked up a one-out single off Shields and the Tampa starter was lifted for J Howell who then walked David Ortiz and gave up an RBI double to Youkilis to give Boston a 2-0 advantage. G Balfour then replaced Howell and quickly hit J.D. Drew to load the bases before getting Bay on strikes and getting Kotsay to pop out to third to end the inning.

Tampa looked like they would finally get at Matsuzaka in the bottom of the eighth as Akinora Iwamura led off with a single, moved to second on a wild pitch and then Crawford reached on an infield single to give the Rays first and second with no outs. Hideki Okajima then came on for Matsuzaka and got Carlos Pena to fly out to short right on a 3-0 count and Justin Masterson was called on to face Evan Longoria and got the third baseman to ground into an inning ending double play.

Jonathan Papelbon was then called on for the bottom of the ninth and he struck out Crawford, got Floyd to foul out and then struck out Navarro to end the game.

Game Two of the ALCS will be in Tampa on Saturday with Josh Beckett getting the ball for the Red Sox while Scott Kazmir goes to the hill for the Rays. First pitch is scheduled for 8:07 p.m. ET.

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