ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Evan Longoria and the rest of the Tampa Bay Rays promised that their bats would wake up in Game Two of the ALCS. They certainly delivered.

The Rays knocked out 12 hits, cranked three home runs and scored just enough runs to squeak out a 9-8 victory over the Red Sox that evened the series at one game apiece. The Rays torched Boston starter Josh Beckett for eight runs in four-plus innings but were held scoreless by the Sox' bullpen from the sixth to the 10th innings. When Boston had no choice but to use one of their final relievers, Mike Timlin, in the 11th inning, the home team took advantage and pushed across the winning run on B.J. Upton's sacrifice fly to right that scored Fernando Perez.

"It doesn't matter how you win games now. It's just that you win," said Longoria. "We wanted to get both of these games at home and we let one go but we're even now. Going up to Boston 1-1, it's like the series starts again.''

The Rays had to listen to their fans moan about a lack of offensive production in Game One of the series but they remained calm. They tipped their cap to the strong pitching of Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka and looked forward to the second game and a chance to hit the slumping Beckett. They certainly followed through as the Rays scored twice in the first inning, two more times in the third and three times in the fifth on the way to an 8-6 lead after five busy innings.

Home runs by Longoria in the first inning, Upton in the third and Cliff Floyd in the fourth were the key blows.

"We knew we'd get it going," said Upton. "We just had to stay patient and take advantage of the chances when they came our way. That's what we did tonight.''

Longoria was in a 1-for-16 slump in the playoffs but his first-inning smash off Beckett erased any negative thoughts that could creep into his mind.

"I just needed to get a comfort level back. Fortunately it was the first at-bat and then it was the old me," he said.

The Rays didn't get much of a start from their pitcher, Scott Kazmir, either. But the relief corps came up big, most notably Warwick's Dan Wheeler. After he uncorked a critical wild pitch that pushed Dustin Pedroia across with the tying run in the eighth inning, Wheeler settled down and blanked the Sox in the ninth and 10th innings. He was credited with 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief before handing the ball to rookie lefty David Price in the 11th inning. Price came through, striking out Mark Kotsay and getting Coco Crisp to ground out.

The Red Sox then went to the veteran Timlin in the bottom of the 11th. Navarro walked and then Ben Zobrist walked as well. Jason Bartlett grounded out to third but both runners moved up. With Perez pinch-running for Navarro, Upton lofted a Timlin pitch down the right-field line. J.D. Drew caught the ball but his throw home was up the third base line and Perez slid home easily with the winning run.

"It was far enough towards the line where [Drew] probably couldn't set his legs," said Upton. "I was just hoping it was far enough.''

While the Red Sox flew home early this morning and were hoping to return to Boston by 6 a.m., the Rays were taking it easy. Their flight will leave Tampa Sunday at 2 p.m. and they will not work out at Fenway Park.

"This is real big for us," said Upton. "We have a little bit of momentum going into Boston now. It was a pretty intense game, pretty intense atmosphere out there, but that's what we expected. We'll see the same thing up in Boston.''