The Boston Red Sox breezed to a 12-2 victory on Friday in their Major League Baseball playoff series with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Left-handed starting pitcher Jon Lester starred in front of 38,177 fans at Fenway Park in Boston to help the Red Sox easily win the opener of their best-of-five American League series.
Lester surrendered solo homers to Sean Rodriguez and Ben Zobrist that staked Tampa Bay to a 2-0 lead but that was shortlived. Lester yielded just one other hit and three walks before exiting with two outs in the eighth.
He had plenty of support from teammates, with the AL East champs hammering Rays starter Matt Moore for eight runs and eight hits.
Jarrod Saltalamacchia finished two-for-four with three RBI, Shane Victorino drove in two runs on a three-for-four outing and Jonny Gomes produced a two-run double as every Red Sox regular earned at least one hit.
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"We are nine hitters all together," Gomes said. "We don't wait for the three-run home run. True all around athletes in lineup."
Tampa Bay, who have scored first in each of their 13 most recent clashes, prevailed in elimination games in three cities over five days.
The Rays hope to regroup behind 2012 AL Cy Young winner David Price in Saturday's game two.
Separately, Max Scherzer struck out 11 batters as the Detroit Tigers held on to beat the Oakland A's 3-2 in game one of their series.
Detroit's Scherzer pitched seven innings of two-run ball allowing just three hits.
Miguel Cabrera's RBI single highlighted Detroit's three-run first inning and was more than enough cushion for Scherzer.
Earlier, rookie Gerrit Cole pitched six strong innings and knocked in a run as the Pittsburgh Pirates pounded St Louis 7-1 to level their playoff series.
Cole, who went 4-0 in September with a 1.69 earned-run average in five starts, surrendered one run on two hits while striking out five for the Pirates.
Pittsburgh wasted no time rebounding from a 9-1 loss on Thursday to level the best-of-five series at 1-1.
"... To fall behind 2-0 to a team like the Cardinals is no good. Today was a huge victory for us," Pirates third baseman Pedro Alvarez said.
The Atlanta Braves posted their first playoff win in three years by edging the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-3 to even their series at 1-1.
