The St. Louis Cardinals evened the World Series at one game each Thursday night, using a three-run seventh inning to defeat the Boston Red Sox, 4-2.
The Cardinals held a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning, when 37-year-old Red Sox veteran David Ortiz broke up a scoreless outing by the Cardinals' 22-year-old rookie pitcher, Michael Wacha, with a two-run home run.
The Cardinals then took a 4-2 lead with three runs in the seventh, which included a double-steal by the Cardinals and two Red Sox errors on a single play.
After two games at Boston's Fenway Park, the series now moves to St. Louis for games 3, 4 and 5, beginning Saturday. If needed, the final two games would be played back in Boston.
After Wednesday's 8-1 Red Sox victory, Thursday's contest -- played in temperatures in the 40s -- was a pitching contest until the late innings. Wacha pitched six innings of three-hit ball, and was the winning pitcher. Boston starter John Lackey also was sharp, pitching 6 1/3-innings of five-hit ball, but took the loss.
Cardinals outfielder Carlos Beltran, injured making a grand-slam-stealing catch over the outfield wall in Game 1, was back on the field, and went two-for-four with an RBI.
Before Thursday's loss, the Red Sox -- a franchise that famously suffered an 86-year championship drought before its 2004 sweep of the Cardinals -- had won nine straight World Series games.
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