Red Sox left fielder Jason Bay scores the winning run in the ninth inning on a single by Jed Lowrie to beat the Angels and advance to the ALCS against the Rays.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON –– Jed Lowrie singled home Jason Bay with the winning run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Boston Red Sox a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and a three-games-to-one victory in the American League Division Series last night.

The Red Sox will take on the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS, which begins Friday in Tampa.

With one out in the ninth, Bay blooped a ground-rule double to right. After Mark Kotsay lined to first baseman Mark Teixeira for the second out, Lowrie grounded a single to right. Bay was able to slide home just ahead of the throw by right fielder Reggie Willits.

The Angels’ commitment to small ball cost them a chance to take the lead in the top of the ninth inning of Game Four of the ALDS tonight at Fenway Park.

With the score tied, 2-2, pinch-hitter Kendry Morales led off with a double off the left-field wall. Willits was bunted to third by Howie Kendrick.

The Angels then tried to squeeze home the go-ahead run. But Erick Aybar — who had singled home the winning run in an identical situation in the 12th inning Sunday night — missed the bunt and Willits, who was running with the pitch, was trapped. Jason Varitek chased him back to the base and tagged him for the second out.

Aybar then grounded out, ending the inning.

Torii Hunter lined a two-run single to right as the Angels, four outs from elimination, rallied for two runs and tied Game Four of the American League Division Series at Fenway Park.

Jon Lester had pitched seven brilliant shutout innings for Boston, scattering four hits, and handed his bullpen a 2-0 lead in the top of the eighth. Hideki Okajima came on and retired the first two batters he faced on grounders to second.

But he walked Teixeira, and manager Terry Francona brought in rookie Justin Masterson to face Vladimir Guerrero. Masterson got ahead of Guerrero, 0-and-2, but wound up walking him, putting runners on first and second.

He then got ahead of Hunter 0-and-2. But one of his next pitches crossed up catcher Jason Varitek and went to the backstop, moving the runners to second and third. Hunter then lined a single to right, tying the score.

The Red Sox had pushed across the first runs of the game in the bottom of the fifth, thanks to an Angels infield miscue and Dustin Pedroia’s first hit of the series.

Mark Kotsay opened the fifth with a single to right and moved to third on a perfectly executed hit-and-run single to right by Varitek one out later.

Jacoby Ellsbury then hit a potential double-play grounder to second. But Kendrick bobbled the ball and only had enough time, after he recovered, to throw Ellsbury out at first. Kotsay scored, making it 1-0, and Varitek went to second.

Pedroia then recorded his first hit of the ALDS, a wall-ball double that drove in Varitek and made it 2-0.

Earlier in the game, Pedroia had saved the Red Sox with his glove.

With the speedy Chone Figgins on second base and Teixeira on first base with two outs in the top of the third, Guerrero hit a slow, spinning ground ball to the right of Lester that rolled into no-man’s land between the mound and the basepaths. With Figgins running at the crack of the bat, it was possible he’d score if an out wasn’t recorded on the play.

But Pedroia charged in, dove, grabbed the ball and shoveled a throw to Kotsay that retired Guerrero, ending the inning and the threat.

Before they scored, the Red Sox had wasted a pair of first-and-second, one-out opportunities.

In the second, a single by J.D. Drew and a walk to Jason Bay gave the Red Sox runners at first and second with one out. But Lackey induced Kotsay to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

The Sox got a one-out single from David Ortiz in the fourth and he reached second when third baseman Figgins made a wild throw to second on Kevin Youklilis’ grounder, putting two men on. Lackey escaped by retiring Drew and Bay on fly balls.

In addition to their threat in the third, the Angels put together a two-out rally against Lester in the second. They got a walk from Game Three hero Mike Napoli (after a hard-fought battle with Lester in which he fouled off three 3-and-2 pitches before drawing ball four) and a single from Juan Rivera, before Kendrick struck out to end the inning.

In the fifth, back-to-back singles by Erick Aybar and Figgins gave the Angels runners at first and second with out. Garret Anderson forced Figgins at second with a grounder to Pedroia, putting men on first and third, and Lester then struck out Teixeira in what was, to that point, the crucial at-bat of the game.

kmcnamar@projo.com