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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Boston 8, Baltimore 7
When: 7:05 PM ET, Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Where: Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland
Temperature: 76°
Umpires: Home - Wally Bell, 1B - John Hirschbeck, 2B - Scott Barry, 3B - Lazaro Diaz
Attendance: 22123

Rookie Ryan Lavarnway belted his first two career home runs and drove in four runs to help Boston outlast the host Baltimore Orioles 8-7 on Tuesday and send the Red Sox into the final day of the season tied for the American League wild card lead.

Jacoby Ellsbury and Marco Scutaro each hit two-run homers to keep the Red Sox deadlocked with Tampa Bay and set up a critical regular-season finale Wednesday at Baltimore.

Lavarnway, making his first major league start at catcher, hit a three-run homer in the fourth and a solo shot in the eighth as Boston won for only the fifth time in 20 games.

Alfredo Aceves (10-2) pitched 3 2/3 innings in his third relief appearance in as many days to match his career-high win total and improve to 24-3 lifetime.

Jonathan Papelbon allowed a run in the ninth before earning his 31st save after the Orioles had closed within 8-6 with two runs in the eighth off Daniel Bard.

Ellsbury's 32nd homer, his fourth in as many games, put Boston ahead 2-1 in the third before Lavarnway clubbed a three-run shot off Zach Britton (11-11) in his 32nd career at-bat for a 5-1 cushion.

Matt Wieters hit a two-run homer and Adam Jones added a solo shot for the Orioles, who lost to Boston for the second time in six meetings over the last nine days.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Boston   Baltimore
Erik Bedard Player Zachary Britton
No Decision W/L Loss
3.1 IP 4.1
6 Strikeouts 2
5 Hits 7
8.10 ERA 10.38
Hitting
Boston   Baltimore
Ryan Lavarnway Player Vladimir Guerrero
2 Hits 3
4 RBI 1
2 HR 0
8 TB 4
.500 Avg .600
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Boston 11 4 27 .297 11 6 8 3 0 0
Baltimore 13 2 24 .333 17 8 7 3 0 0