Boston pushes series to limit

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Rays should have snuffed out the Boston Red Sox when they had the chance.

They let them up for air in Game 5, their failure to hold a seven-run, seventh-inning lead preventing them from clinching a World Series berth, and now they’re the team that is reeling, gasping for breath in the American League Championship Series.

The Red Sox followed their miracle Game 5 comeback with a methodical dismantling of the Rays in Game 6 on Saturday night, their 4-2 victory in Tropicana Field tying the best-of-seven series at three games apiece.

Boston left-hander Jon Lester will oppose right-hander Matt Garza in a winner-take-all game tonight, as the Red Sox try to complete their third ALCS resurrection in five years.

Trailing, 3-0, in the 2004 ALCS, Boston stormed back to win four games in a row against the New York Yankees. Trailing, 3-1, in the 2007 ALCS, the Red Sox won three games in a row to beat Cleveland.

“It’s not easy,” slugger David Ortiz said. “It’s not like we like being in this situation, but it seems like that’s how our destiny has been. We’ve been there before. We know what it takes to win the game.”

The Red Sox didn’t do anything spectacular Saturday. They got a solid start from Josh Beckett, who gave up two runs and four hits in five innings, and four hitless innings from three relievers.

They got some clutch hits, none bigger than Jason Varitek’s home run that broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning, and made all the plays on defense.

The Rays, meanwhile, look like a shell of the team that a few days ago seemed poised to roll over the Red Sox.

Starting pitcher James “Big Game” Shields came up medium, giving up four runs -- three earned -- and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings, including Varitek’s home run, which ended the catcher’s skid at 0 for 15.

The heavy lumber that produced 38 runs and 47 hits, 13 of them home runs, in the previous four ALCS games looked more like balsa wood Saturday, the Rays managing four hits.

And the Rays’ usual air-tight defense sprung a leak for the second consecutive game, shortstop Jason Bartlett’s throwing error on Dustin Pedroia’s routine grounder extending the sixth inning and giving Ortiz a chance to hit. His two-out run-scoring single made it 4-2.

“My feet got lazy,” Bartlett said. “I thought I had it pretty easy and I let it sail. I pride myself on defense, and that’s going to eat at me tonight.”

The Red Sox bullpen took over from there, left-hander Hideki Okajima throwing a scoreless sixth and seventh, Justin Masterson a scoreless eighth and closer Jonathan Papelbon retiring the side in order in the ninth to extend his career postseason scoreless string to 25 innings.

“It’s do-or-die, it’s going to be fun,” Rays third baseman Evan Longoria said of Game 7. “We haven’t been here before, but that’s part of the excitement, knowing you’re the only team playing. We have a big opportunity to make history [tonight].”

The teams were tied, 2-2, after five innings Saturday, B.J. Upton hitting a home run for Tampa Bay in the first inning, his seventh of the postseason, and Kevin Youkilis countering with a home run in the second inning.

Pedroia’s walk, Ortiz’s double and Youkilis’ run-scoring groundout gave Boston a 2-1 lead in the third inning. Bartlett tied it in the fifth with a home run to left field, but a busted hit-and-run play three pitches earlier prevented the Rays from taking the lead.

With Dioner Navarro at first base, Beckett threw a first-pitch ball to Bartlett. Navarro took off on the next pitch, an up-and-in curveball that nearly hit Bartlett, who did not swing.

The slow-footed catcher was easily thrown out by Varitek, making Bartlett’s home run a solo shot instead of a two-run job.

With two outs in the sixth, Varitek, the grizzled veteran, the “heart and soul of that team,” said Rays Manager Joe Maddon, the captain who was hitting .107 in the postseason, stroked Shields’ 2-and-0 fastball into the right-center field seats for a 3-2 lead.

“Our whole dugout went crazy,” Manager Terry Francona said. “It was not just a big run, it was a huge run, and as hard as he’s worked, it meant a lot to everybody.”

Especially Beckett.

“He wears a ‘C’ on that jersey for a lot of different reasons, but none more important than how much respect everybody in that clubhouse, including players, coaches and upper management, has for him,” Beckett said. “We’re always pulling for that guy.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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ALCS TONIGHT

On the air: TV -- TBS. Radio -- ESPN.

Update: If you told the Red Sox a month or two ago that they needed to win one game to reach the World Series, Jon Lester is the guy they would have wanted on the mound. But the left-hander who was virtually untouchable in two division series starts, in which he did not give up an earned run in 14 innings against the Angels, gave up five runs -- four earned -- and eight hits, including two home runs, in 5 2/3 innings of a 9-1 loss in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series. Right-hander Matt Garza gave up one run and six hits in six innings to gain the win in that game and is 4-1 with a 3.49 ERA in seven career starts against the Red Sox. Rocco Baldelli, who hit a three-run home run in Game 3, will start in place of Gabe Gross in right field, and Willy Aybar will replace Cliff Floyd at designated hitter for the Rays.

-- Mike DiGiovanna