came off Ryan Dempster in the ninth.

"Jonny has been the leader of this rotation all year long," Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino said. "He went out there again tonight and did what he does best. He was great. We capitalized. That's the most important thing."

Lester received additional run support with another Cardinals miscue. A throwing error charged to Freese extended the seventh long enough for Ortiz to blast a two-run home run to right that no outfielder could reach. It was served up by reliever Kevin Siegrist, who had not been taken deep by a left-handed hitter this season.

"It's not at all what you had hoped or envisioned," Mozeliak said of the night's events. "The fact that you're giving a team like that extra outs is very difficult.And I think in Waino's case, he was pitching in more defensive counts than normal. Combine all that, and obviously the end result was not good."

This is the first time in the Cardinals' last four postseason series that they have lost Game 1. In World Series history, the winner of the first game has gone on to take the Series 62 percent of the time. In order to fall on the other end of that statistic, St. Louis will first have to halt Boston's nine-game World Series winning streak, which traces back to that first game against the Cards in '04.

"This wasn't a good game for us, but the good news is that it's just one," Carpenter said. "That's why you play seven."

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