Boston refuses to go quietly

BOSTON -- Coco Crisp saw fans heading for the exits in Fenway Park on Thursday night with the home team trailing by seven runs in the seventh inning, and the Boston Red Sox center fielder couldn’t really blame them.

“I guess down seven in the seventh, most of the time you don’t come back from that,” Crisp said. “I know they’re home kicking themselves in the butt, like, ‘Gosh, I just left an instant classic.’ The fans that stayed are out here partying, cheering.”

And the Red Sox? They’re simply breathing, remarkably alive in the American League Championship Series after rallying against one of baseball’s best bullpens for the second-greatest comeback in postseason history, a stunning, 8-7 Game 5 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Crisp capped a 10-pitch at-bat with a two-out, run-scoring single to tie it, 7-7, in the eighth, and J.D. Drew, whose two-run homer in the eighth pulled Boston to within 7-6, drove a two-out RBI single over right fielder Gabe Gross’ head in the ninth to give the Red Sox their 11th walk-off win in the postseason.

It marked Boston’s eighth straight win when facing LCS elimination and sent the series back to Tampa Bay for Game 6 with the Rays leading, three games to two, still one win away from their first World Series berth.

“I’ve never seen a group so happy to get on a plane at 1:30 in the morning in my life,” Red Sox Manager Terry Francona said. “The first six innings, we did nothing. They had their way with us. And then this place came unglued. That was pretty magical.”

For the Rays, it could be devastating, especially for Manager Joe Maddon, whose late-game pitching decisions will be dissected and criticized as much as Angels Manager Mike Scioscia’s decision to attempt a suicide squeeze in the division series.

Starter Scott Kazmir blanked the Red Sox on two hits over six innings, and the Rays appeared on their way to another lopsided win when B.J. Upton hit a two-run homer in the first, Carlos Pena (two-run) and Evan Longoria (solo) homered in the third, and Upton hit a two-run double in the seventh.

Maddon pulled Kazmir, who threw 111 pitches, after six innings, and right-hander Grant Balfour gave up a leadoff double to Jed Lowrie in the seventh. Two outs later, Crisp singled, putting runners on first and third, and Dustin Pedroia singled to make it 7-1.

Neither of the Rays’ left-handed specialists, Trever Miller and J.P. Howell, was warming up, so Maddon left Balfour to face the left-handed-hitting David Ortiz, who crushed a three-run homer to right, his first playoff homer in 15 games and 61 at-bats, to pull Boston to within 7-4.

“We’ve been doing that all year,” Maddon said. “Grant has been very good in that situation. [Ortiz] just got him tonight.”

Maddon had an entire bullpen to work with but went to his closer, Dan Wheeler, who threw 47 pitches in 3 1/3 innings in Tampa Bay’s 9-8 Game 2 win.

The right-hander got Kevin Youkilis to fly out, ending the seventh, but walked Jason Bay to open the eighth and gave up a two-run homer to Drew, which made it 7-6.

Two outs later, Mark Kotsay doubled off the glove of Upton in center, and Crisp, after fouling off four full-count pitches, singled sharply to right to score Kotsay.

“They kept us down for a while,” Kotsay said. “Fortunately, we woke up before it was too late.”

Howell replaced Wheeler to start the ninth and got Pedroia to ground out and struck out Ortiz, a showdown that Rays fans, no doubt, would have preferred to see in the seventh.

Longoria, Tampa Bay’s brilliant rookie third baseman, made a nice backhand stop of Youkilis’ chopper, but his off-balance throw bounced past Pena at first for an error that allowed Youkilis to reach second.

Bay was walked intentionally, and Drew lined his game-winner to deep right, completing the largest post-season comeback since the Philadelphia Athletics defeated the Chicago Cubs, 10-8, in Game 4 of the 1929 World Series after trailing, 8-0.

“David got us back into it. . . . J.D. squared up two balls really well, and Coco’s at-bat was probably the best he’s had here,” Francona said. “We did some unbelievable things.”

If the Rays lose this series, they will look back at Thursday night’s game the way Angels fans recall Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS, when Donnie Moore gave up the home run to Dave Henderson.

“We were up, 7-0, that’s the hard part,” Balfour said. “You feel like you need to put them away, and we didn’t. They showed heart. We just have to show character ourselves the next game.”

--

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com