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Red Sox, Rays to play game 4 in ALCS tonight
2008-10-14
The Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays play game 4 in their American League Championship Series tonight in Boston. Andy Sonnanstine wil pitch for the Rays against Boston knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. The Rays lead the series 2 games to 1. The National League series has today off. Last night, Matt Stairs came through in the pinch for the Phillies. The 40-year old launched a two-run, pinch-hit home run in the eighth inning that gave Philadelphia a 7-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. A victory in Game 5 of the series Wednesday will put the Phillies in the World Series for the first time since 1993. Stairs connected for his game winner three batters after Shane Victorino tied the score with a two-run homer. Casey Blake hit a home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning that gave the Dodgers a 4-3 lead and Juan Pierre scored on an error later in the inning to put Los Angeles up by two. But the Dodgers bullpen couldn't hold it. The two teams have Tuesday off. In Boston, the Rays powered four home runs over Fenway Park's Green Monster in a 9-1 win over Boston to take a two-games-to-one lead in the ALCS. B.J. Upton, Evan Longoria, Rocco Baldelli and Carlos Pena all cleared the 37-foot wall in left field. Upton and Baldelli's homers were three-run shots. The muscle-flexing was more than enough for starter Matt Garza who shutdown the Red Sox. He allowed a run on six hits in six-plus innings for 1the win. In other baseball news, St. Louis first baseman Albert Pujols has had surgery to relieve nerve irritation on his right elbow and should be ready for spring training. The 2005 National League MVP was experiencing numbness and tingling in his fingers along with weakness in his grip and pain along the inside of the forearm. Pujols was second in the NL with a .357 average this season and led the Cardinals with 37 homers and 116 RBIs.
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