Bombs away; Drew's 9th-inning blast lifts Boston.

Byline: Bill Ballou

ANAHEIM, Calif. - J.D. Drew's two-run homer in the ninth off Francisco Rodriguez led the Red Sox to 7-5 victory over the Angels last night and gave Boston a 2-games-to-0 lead in this best-of-five Division Series.

Game 3 is scheduled to be played at Fenway Park tomorrow night starting at 7:17. A Sox victory would send them to the ALCS for the second straight year.

Daisuke Matsuzaka got the start for Boston, Ervin Santana for the Angels.

Santana was throwing hard and accurately to the first two Boston batters, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia. Ellsbury fouled out to third, and then Pedroia struck out swinging and looked confused doing so.

David Ortiz, however, hit a hard line drive to right field that found a safe landing spot among the shifted Angels. Kevin Youkilis followed with a soft single into shallow right and the Red Sox had runners at first and second with two out for Drew.

Drew delivered the first run of the game with a double to right-center, Ortiz scoring and Youkilis stopping - barely in time - as he came around third. The throw home would have had him if it had been handled cleanly by Angels catcher Jeff Mathis.

It turned out to be a big non-play as Jason Bay followed with a home run to straightaway center field, his second in as many games here. That drove in both Youkilis and Drew ahead of him to give Boston an early 4-0 lead.

Matsuzaka did not come right back and shut down the Angels, though. He also had trouble after getting two quick outs. Mark Teixeira singled to right, Vladimir Guerrero singled to center and Torii Hunter had a base hit to center to bring Anaheim its first run.

Boston got the four-run lead back by scoring again in the top of the fourth inning, everything again happening with two out. Alex Cora doubled to right-center, then Ellsbury followed with another two-base hit and it was a 5-1 game.

Once again, Matsuzaka allowed the Angels to respond.

He walked Juan Rivera to lead off the bottom of the fourth. Matsuzaka then struck out Howie Kendrick, but Mathis reached him for a base hit to left to move Rivera up to second. Erick Aybar's weak ground ball to first base put Angels at second and third and then Chone Figgins made it a 5-2 game with a sharp single to left field.

The home team got even closer in the fifth, an agonizing inning that saw Matsuzaka throw 36 pitches and give up one more run. He walked Teixeira and Guerrero to get things going, then gave up an RBI single to Hunter. Boston squandered a chance to add to its lead in the sixth when it loaded the bases with nobody out but could not score. With one out, Mark Kotsay reached when Hunter muffed an easy line drive to center. After Jason Varitek followed with a single to left, Angels manager Mike Scioscia took out Santana and brought in Jose Arredondo to face Alex Cora.

Cora walked to load the bases, but Ellsbury struck out and Pedroia extended his postseason hitless streak to 0 for 7 by grounding out to second base.

Matsuzaka was finished after five innings, having thrown 108 pitches, and Hideki Okajima came on for the sixth. Okajima dispatched the Angels quickly, getting them in order for just the second time in the game. Teixeira and Guerrero began the seventh, though, with back-to-back singles and the Angels were rallying again.

After the hit by Guerrero, Okajima was relieved by rookie Justin Masterson and Hunter hit Masterson's first pitch to Bay in left, with Teixeira tagging and going to third. Masterson then walked Rivera to load the bases, but bounced back with a strikeout of Howie Kendrick. Mike Napoli drew a bases-loaded walk, though, to make it a 5-4 game before Masterson struck out Aybar to end the inning.

Anaheim tied it in the eighth on a Teixeira sacrifice fly.

NAME: BOSTON RED SOX