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Koji Uehara celebrates with Mike Napoli after picking off the Cardinals' Kolten Wong in the bottom of the ninth to win Game 4.
ST. LOUIS — Jonny Gomes rounded first base, his right arm raised high. He pounded the "Boston" across his chest and let out a cathartic scream. He had just muscled a sinkerball over the left-field wall for a three-run homer, and was rounding first base screaming as if he wanted all of St. Louis to hear him.
The way the Boston Red Sox had lost Game 3 of the World Series, on an obstruction call at third base in the bottom of the ninth, seemed to only anger them. They did not let the sour mood linger, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-2, Sunday in Game 4, the victory sealed when Koji Uehara picked off the pinch-runner Kolten Wong with the tying run at the plate.
Gomes's towering home run, that hung in the sky seemingly tracing the arc of the Gateway Arch looming in the distance, helped the Red Sox even the Series at two games piece. Game 5 is here Monday before the Series shifts back to Boston for Game 6 on Wednesday. The Red Sox broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth when Dustin Pedroia singled, and David Ortiz walked on four pitches to chase Lance Lynn, the Cardinals' starter who had been nearly untouchable earlier in the night.
Seth Maness came in to relieve Lynn and face Gomes, who was only in the lineup because Shane Victorino had been scratched with tightness in his lower back. On a 2-2 pitch, Gomes took Maness deep to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead.
"It was up, right down the middle, on a tee for him," Maness said.
With one swing, Gomes had done a lot of healing. Lynn was string at the start, pumping in 13 fastballs as he retiring the side in order in the first. He struck out Pedroia swinging on 96 mile-per-hour fastball. He pumped his fist and the Busch Stadium crowd roared as he walked off the mound.
He needed only 50 pitches to cruise through four innings. His only blemish to that point had been an infield single by Ortiz that had deflected off his own foot.
Clay Buchholz, meanwhile, appeared to be laboring, his fastball was sitting at 88 m.p.h. He had been dealing with a stiff right shoulder, a nagging injury that had cost him about three months during the season. In the postseason, he had posted a 5.40 E.R.A. and had not pitched past the sixth inning.
Before the Series started, Manager John Farrell said Buchholz would be pushed back to Game 4 at the earliest, giving him at least seven days off before Sunday's start.
"I don't think anybody, especially at this time of the season, is a hundred percent," Buchholz said.
He managed to squeak by until the third inning. Matt Carpenter singled on a ground ball to center, where the ball kicked off Jacoby Ellsbury's glove, allowing Carpenter to get to second base. Carlos Beltran followed with a single up the middle to score Carpenter.
But that was all the damage the Cardinals could do. Buchholz exited after four innings, having thrown 66 pitches and having done enough to keep the Red Sox close.
Boston got to Lynn in the fifth to tie the score at 1-1. Ortiz led off with a double before Lynn walked Gomes and Xander Bogaerts to load the bases with no outs. Stephen Drew drove him Ortiz on a sacrifice fly to left.
This game was shaping up to be another tight contest, just like the game before. Saturday's Game 3 had ended with both teams pouring onto the field, not everyone certain what exactly had happened.
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Red Sox brought the infield in as Jon Jay stepped to the plate with Yadier Molina on third and Allen Craig on second. Jay hit a grounder to Dustin Pedroia, who fired home to get Molina. Jarrod Saltalamacchia looked up and saw Craig heading to third and fired a throw to Will Middlebrooks that went wide of the bag. Middlebrooks tripped trying to catch the throw, and fell onto his stomach. As the ball squirted away, Craig took off for home and got tangled in Middlebrooks's legs. Left fielder Daniel Nava got off a throw that beat Craig to the plate, but he was ruled safe.
Jim Joyce, the third-base umpire, had called Middlebrooks for obstruction. The Red Sox were stunned.
Farrell was left to explain several questionable decisions. He had allowed reliever Brandon Workman to bat in the ninth with the score tied. He had not used Mike Napoli, his best weapon off the bench, to pinch-hit. And he opted not to walk Jay in the ninth, which would have brought up the light-hitting Pete Kozma.
Farrell said Sunday that he had not slept well Saturday night. But that he was confident in his team's leadership, and in their ability to put Game 3 behind them.
"We can't go back to yesterday," Farrell said.
There was less margin for error now, the Red Sox seemed to understand. Before the sixth inning, Ortiz appeared to give a pep talk in the dugout. Minutes later, Gomes homered. And Farrell, too, seemed more aggressive, mixing his relievers.
When Felix Doubront and Craig Breslow ran into trouble, allowing a run to score in the seventh, Farrell brought in Junichi Tazawa to shut the door. He had John Lackey, his Game 2 starter, pitch the eighth inning, and then turned to closer Koji Uehara for the ninth.
All together, they held the lead.
There was no controversy, no debate, no doubt about it this time, like the ball jumping off Gomes's bat. The Red Sox had won on their own talent and volition.
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