Trotting home tied
BOSTON -- Trot Nixon got another big hit in Boston. This time, he beat his old mates.
The former Red Sox stalwart snapped an 11th-inning tie with a pinch-hit single, and the Cleveland Indians broke loose for 6 more runs to beat the Red Sox 13-6 early Sunday morning and tie the AL championship series at a game apiece.
The best-of-seven series moves to Cleveland for Game 3, when Red Sox rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka will face Jake Westbrook.
"It was big," Nixon said of tying the series at 1-1. "We didn't play very well the first night. I think it was the atmosphere of playing in the American League championship series. We showed some resiliency today."
The anticipated matchup of 2001 World Series co-MVP Curt Schilling and 19-game winner Fausto Carmona fizzled into a stalemate that lasted 5 hours, 14 minutes. It ended at 1:37 a.m. EDT, when Joe Borowski got a game-ending double play.
"It's kind of ridiculous playing at 1:30 in the morning," Nixon said.
Tom Mastny got the win and deserved it: He retired David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell in order in the 10th -- something few other pitchers have done this off-season. With Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon done after pitching two innings, Eric Gagne came in for the 11th.
The trade deadline acquisition fanned Casey Blake to start the inning, then gave up a single to Grady Sizemore and walked Asdrubal Cabrera.
Nixon, a first-round draft pick who spent the first 13 years of his career in the Boston organization, singled off Javier Lopez to right-center to break the tie.
"We hung in there," Nixon said. "The crowd was into it. We were able to start something up in the 11th inning."
Trailing 6-5, the Indians tied it in the sixth when Jhonny Peralta walked, took third on Kenny Lofton's single and scored on Franklin Gutierrez's groundout.
Then both teams got outstanding relief pitching with no one reaching base in the seventh and eighth.
Boston put a runner on second with two outs in the ninth and Kevin Youkilis at the plate. Youkilis fouled off six straight two-strike pitches from Rafael Betancourt before lining the 11th pitch of the at-bat to center. But Grady Sizemore made a sliding catch to send the game into extra innings.
Neither starting pitcher made it out of the fifth.
Schilling allowed 5 runs in 4¿ innings for Boston, a rare blemish on his postseason record of 9-2 with a 1.93 ERA entering the game. Carmona went 19-6 this season with a 3.06 ERA, second-best in the AL, but the right-hander gave up 4 runs and 4 hits with 5 walks in 4 innings. Both pitched outstanding games in their AL division series.
Ramirez, who tied a postseason record with his 23rd home run, and Mike Lowell also drove in all the runs during a 3-run third that gave Boston a 3-1 lead. Ramirez drew his third bases-loaded walk in two games -- no other player has had more than 1 in a single postseason series -- and Lowell lined a 2-run single.
Cleveland went in front in the first when Sizemore led off the game with a double and scored on a two-out double by Victor Martinez.
Peralta hit a 3-run drive in the fourth and Sizemore had a solo shot in the fifth to help the Indians build a 5-3 lead.
Ortiz reached base safely in 10 consecutive postseason plate appearances, equaling the mark set by Billy Hatcher with the Cincinnati Reds in 1990. Ortiz walked in the first inning and hit an infield single in the third, putting him on base safely 18 times in 20 trips to the plate during the playoffs this year.
His streak ended in the fifth when he grounded into a fielder's choice against Rafael Perez. The big slugger hustled to first base, beating out a potential double play before Ramirez went deep.