Tampa Bay pitcher David Price, left, celebrates with catcher Dioner Navarro and the rest of the Rays after Price retired Boston in the ninth inning to record the save in last night’s Game Seven of the ALCS at Tropicana Field.

AP / Mark Humphrey

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- It came to an end for the Red Sox. It's just beginning for the Rays.

Boston won't get a chance to defend its World Series title and Tampa will compete for its first in the club's 11-year history after its 3-1 victory in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last night at Tropicana Field.

The series was classic. Boston twice won while on the brink of elimination, forcing a seventh game. In the end, however, it was the former cellar dwellers of the A.L. East who were able to subdue the perennial powerhouse in front of 40,473 fans.

Rhode Island's Rocco Baldelli, who missed the majority of the season because of a career-threatening affliction with metabolic mitochondria, proved a crucial player for the Rays. He was Tampa's starting right fielder in Game 7 -- only his second start of the series -- and provided the game-winning hit, an RBI single in the bottom fifth to give the Rays a 2-1 lead.

"[Jon] Lester is always tough. He's one of the best pitchers in the league. You're just trying to scrap some runs together against the guy," said Baldelli. "He left a cutter, which is probably his toughest pitch against rightys, out over the plate and I was just lucky enough to pull my hands inside."

As the ball skipped through the left side of the infield, Baldelli said he didn't know whether it got through or not.

"I had no idea," he said. "I was hoping, to be honest with you. When I saw it go through, it was a pretty good feeling."

The final blow was Willy Aybar's solo home run to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning for a 3-1 final. That shot that sailed into the left-field seats was the 26th homer of this series, a new ALCS record.

As expected, Game 7 was a pitchers' duel between Lester and the Rays' Matt Garza.

Garza finished with the victory after a tremendous seven-inning outing in which he allowed only one run -- a solo homer by the Sox' Dustin Pedroia in the first inning -- on two hits. He walked three and struck out nine.

Lester was also good, but suffered the loss. Boston's southpaw, like Garza, worked seven strong innings, but allowed three runs on six hits with no walks and eight strikeouts.

"I was happy with the way I threw the ball," he said. "They just beat me tonight. You have to tip your hat to Garza. He threw the hell out of the ball tonight and sometimes that happens. Sometimes you just run into a pitcher that has stuff like him on a night like this. You have to tip your hat to him."

Lester acknowledged the adversity faced by the Red Sox in 2008, including injuries to key players that had a lasting effect on the club in the postseason.

"I'm very proud," Lester said of his teammates. "That's testament to the character that's in this clubhouse and the will and the fight. Nobody gave up. Everybody still believed down 3-1, and we kept fighting and clawing and got to Game 7. It just didn't go our way."

Lester was roughed up in Game 3 of the series, allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits in only 5 2/3 innings at Fenway Park. Boston's southpaw wanted nothing more than to face the Rays again in October, and he got his shot last night.

After Pedroia gave the Red Sox a 1-0 advantage with his solo home run in the top of the first inning, Lester was cruising and retired the first nine Rays batters until Akinori Iwamura led off the bottom of the fourth inning with a single to left field.

Lester struck out the hot-hitting B.J. Upton before Carlos Pena reached on a fielder's choice, Iwamura out at second. The Rays were able to knot the game at 1-1 when Evan Longoria provided an RBI double that scored Pena from first. Lester ended the inning when he struck out Carl Crawford.

Garza, meanwhile, did not allow his second hit until Jason Bay lined a single in the top of the seventh inning.

Tampa gained a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth. Aybar led off with a double to left field. Dioner Navarro followed with an infield hit before Baldelli provided the go-ahead RBI single with a liner to left.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, on Lester's 95th offering of the game, Aybar crushed a 3-2 pitch deep into the left-field seats to give Tampa a 3-1 advantage. The Red Sox would load the bases in the top of the eighth inning, but rookie reliever David Price entered the game and struck out J.D. Drew to end the threat.

"I felt like I saw the ball well," said Drew, the Game 5 hero, speaking of the final strike, when he tried to check his swing but could not. "I was tracking it well with my eyes as well as my hands, and I really didn't feel like I broke the plane."

Price allowed a walk in the top of the ninth but retired the next three hitters in order to pick up the save and clinch the pennant for the Rays.

"We played as hard as we could," said Pedroia. "We just ran out of magic. I'm proud of everybody. We played as hard as we could all year long and to get to this point, obviously it's a tough loss. They move on and they played a little bit better than us tonight."

The silence was deafening after the game in the Sox clubhouse.

Veterans Tim Wakefield and Mike Timlin made their way around the room and thanked every one of their teammates for a special season that ended short of the final goal. The pair of veterans may have played their last game in Red Sox uniforms.

Some players quickly showered, dressed and made their way to the bus, while others sat in disbelief. Kevin Youkilis sat at his locker in full uniform for almost 30 minutes. When he finally seemed to come to terms with the defeat and accept the fact that his season was over, he stood up to meet with the media.

"It hurts that we're not going to the World Series," he said. "We've got to move on and get ready for 2009."

In the home clubhouse, players, coaches, team personnel, family members were all partying and celebrating in a most deserving way.

The magical Rays season will continue Wednesday, when they host the Phillies in the first game of the World Series.

"Once we got through May, we had a pretty good sense we were going to have some staying power," said Rays GM Andrew Friedman, summing up the team's rise from last-place team to league champion. "It's an incredible moment for the Rays organization."

jmcdonal@projo.com