ST. PETERSBURG—B. J. Upton’s short fly ball down the right field line was deep enough to score Fernando Perez from third base and give the Rays a marathon, 9-8 victory over the Boston Red Sox tonight in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field.

The five hour, 27-minute game didn’t end until after 1:35 a.m.

With the series now tied 1-1, Game 3 will be played Monday night at Fenway Park in Boston.

Dioner Navarro drew a leadoff walk from Mike Timlin, Boston’s seventh pitcher of the game, and Perez came in as a pinch runner. Timlin then walked Ben Zobrist on four pitches, which got Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell ejected for arguing home plate umpire Sam Holbrook’s strike zone.

Jason Bartlett grounded out to third, but Perez advanced to third and Zobrist took second. An intentional walk to Aki Iwamura loaded the bases with one out and brought up Upton, who was 1-for-4 with three strikeouts at that point in the game.

“I knew in that situation I couldn’t strike out,” Upton said. “I wanted to put the ball in play and put a little pressure on the defense, especially with Fernando at third base.”

His fly ball on an 0-2 pitch from Timlin (0-1) wasn’t very deep, but it was down the right field line and made a tough angle for Boston right fielder J.D. Drew, whose throw went up the third-base line. The speedy Perez slid to the back edge of home plate and scored easily.

The Rays mobbed Perez as he leapt to his feet and the crowd, a large percentage of whom stayed until the dramatic end, roared. The Red Sox fans, most of them behind the Boston dugout, quickly filed out of the Trop.

“To win a game like that under these circumstances after yesterday is very special for this group and for the organization,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “Obviously, it puts us in much better shape going into Fenway Park.”

Rays rookie pitcher David Price, who wasn’t even on the major league roster until September call-ups, got two outs in a scoreless top of the 11th inning to pick up the win. He also was the seventh pitcher used by the Rays.

Price came in with one on and one out and promptly walked J.D. Drew to put Boston runners at first and second with one out. But he struck out Mark Kotsay and got Coco Crisp to ground into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.