Longoria's 13th-inning homer beats Red Sox

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida – Evan Longoria his his second homer of the game, a two-run shot off Takashi Saito with two outs in the bottom of the 13th, to give the Tampa Bay Rays a 4-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox in the American League on Tuesday.

Longoria, who struck out four times, homered in the eighth off Daniel Bard, tying the score 2-all.

The Red Sox bullpen worked out of jams in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings, but couldn’t hold off the Rays for a fourth time. Boston’s Dustin Pedroia grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the 10th.

Michel Hernandez walked to start the 13th. After a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, Longoria hit his 23rd homer of the season off Saito (2-3) to end the 4 hour, 57-minute game.

Lance Cormier (2-1) gave up one hit in one inning for the win.

Kevin Youkilis hit his 20th homer for Boston and Pedroia connected for his seventh.

At Chicago, Scott Podsednik’s RBI single with two outs in the ninth lifted Chicago and snapped Los Angeles’ eight-game road winning streak with a 5-4 victory.

Kevin Jepsen (3-3) retired the first two batters in the ninth, then allowed Jayson Nix’s double and Podsednik’s single.

It was the third game-ending hit this season by Podsednik, a 2005 World Series star for Chicago who was re-signed by the team after Colorado cut him in April.

Matt Thornton (6-2), the fourth reliever to follow White Sox starter Jose Contreras, who lasted only 2 2-3 innings, got the win. At Toronto, Andy Pettitte won for the first time in six starts as New York hit three homers off Roy Halladay to beat Toronto, 5-3.

Pettitte (9-6), who had not won since July 1, allowed one run and four hits in 6 2-3 innings, walking four and striking out six. He left with runners at first and second in the seventh but Phil Hughes came on and struck out Jose Bautista to end the inning. (AP)