ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Score one for the Red Sox in the battle of the bullpens in the American League Championship Series.

Game One of the ALCS was predictably tight, as most of the series is expected to play out. That's why sharp, clean pitching out of the bullpen is a must and that's what the Red Sox received on their way to a big 2-0 win last night at Tropicana Field.

Daisuke Matsuzaka handed a 2-0 lead off to the 'pen in the eighth inning. Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson and Jonathan Papelbon combined to shut the door the rest of the way to preserve the win.

"Our pen has worked like that all year long. It's basically first guy out sets the tone and everybody else follows suit. That's what happened tonight,'' said Papelbon.

How big was grabbing the series opener and stealing the home field advantage that the Rays worked all year to establish?

"No question, big win," Papelbon said. "To come in here and kind of take the pressure off ourselves and get that first win under our belts is definitely big for us, but everybody in this clubhouse realizes we still have a lot road ahead of us."

While the Sox shined, the same cannot be said for the Rays. Starting pitcher James Shields did an excellent job in his 7 1/3 innings of work but he left after Dustin Pedroia singled with out in the eighth. The Rays handed the ball to J.P. Howell. The lefty walked David Ortiz. Kevin Youkilis followed with a line shot to left that Carl Crawford decided to try to catch instead of playing on one hop. Crawford was late getting to the ball and it scooted by him as he slid to the turf. Pedroia scored on the play for a 2-0 Boston lead and Youkilis was credited with a double.

Grant Balfour replaced Howell and promptly plunked J.D. Drew off the right shoulder to load the bases. Balfour escaped the one-out jam by striking out Jason Bay and getting Mark Kotsay to pop out to third. But the damage was done.

The Sox carried the 2-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth. Matsuzaka opened the inning by surrendering a line-drive single to left by Akinori Iwamura and an infield single off Youkilis' glove at third by B.J. Upton. That was it for Matsuzaka, who gave up just four hits and threw 115 pitches.

Okajima quickly fell into a 3-and-0 hole against Rays' clean-up hitter, Carlos Pena, but Pena chose to swing away on the next pitch and lifted a lazy fly ball that Drew ran down in right-center field.

Francona then called for Masterson to face fellow rookie Evan Longoria. Throwing his low-90s fastball, Masterson stayed ahead of the likely Rookie of the Year and forced a ground ball to short that the Sox smoothly turned into an inning ending, 6-4-3 double play.

Clinging to the 2-0 lead, Boston gave the ball to Papelbon. Cracking 95 miles an hour several times, he struck out Crawford for out number one, gave up a lazy pop out to Youkilis at third by Cliff Floyd and struck out Dioner Navarro to end the game.