BOSTON -- As Dan Wheeler peered into home plate and pumped one fastball after another toward Coco Crisp, the Red Sox center fielder dug in for one of the most important at-bats of his life. Crisp hung in for one pitch after another, so many that he lost count.

``Somebody said nine. I guess it was 10. I was just focusing on every pitch,'' he said. ``I stepped out, said a little prayer every time and got back in. Pretty much the same routine every pitch.''

It was the bottom of the eighth inning, and Crisp stood at the plate with the Red Sox' season resting on his shoulders. The Sox had scrapped and clawed their way back from a 7-0 deficit, cutting the Tampa Bay Rays' lead to one in Game 5 of the ALCS. Only seven outs away from the World Series, the Rays began fumbling and bumbling their way to the finish line.

The first big blow came on a three-run home run by David Ortiz in the seventh inning. That cut the deficit to 7-4 and gave the Sox a bit of hope. The homer snapped a 1-for-18 slump for Big Papi and changed the mentality in Boston's dugout.

``That was the turning point where we felt like we had a chance,'' said Crisp. ``It's now 7-4, so then it's definitely in reach. The big guy came through for us again. He was in a little slide, but he leaned back on one and gave everyone a sense of, 'We can do this.' ''

With Wheeler on in the eighth, Jason Bay led off with a walk and J.D. Drew cut the lead to one run when he blasted a fastball into the right-field stands. After two big outs, Mark Kotsay doubled over B.J. Upton's head in centerfield. He stood on second base as the tying run when Wheeler kept pounding fastballs at Crisp.

``I felt like that was going to give me the best chance of getting him out,'' said the Warwick native.

Wheeler fell behind, two balls and one strike, but then began to pump one strike after another toward the plate. Crisp fouled one off to even the count at 2-2. A ball pushed the count full, and then Crisp fouled off four straight fastballs.

Finally, on the 10th pitch, Wheeler blinked and Crisp lined a sharp single into right field. ``The location was different,'' Crisp said. ``His ball sinks and tails away from you a lot. He left a few of them up and I was able to get a piece of them. The last one, he made a mistake and I was able to put it in play.''

Kotsay motored around third base and was waved home by coach DeMarlo Hale. Gabe Gross' throw home seemed to slip and bounced horribly short up the first-base line. Crisp was thrown out trying to sneak into second base, but he took the field for the ninth inning knowing he'd just knocked in the most important RBI of his Red Sox career.

``Coco's at-bat was probably the best at-bat he's had as a Red Sox, because of the situation,'' said Red Sox manager Terry Francona.

When the Sox rallied for the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a J.D. Drew single, the game was elevated to lofty status in Crisp's memory as well.

``It's a playoff game, facing elimination, we're down by so much, and to come back and win in the ninth with a walk-off like that. It was the most amazing game I've ever been a part of,'' he said.