(Boston, MA) Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima combined for seven effective innings Sunday night in fenway, and Jonathan Papelbon nailed the first three inning save of his career Red Sox won 11-2 to complete an improbable comeback against a surging Indians team that seemed destined for the World Series. Instead, the Red Sox will face Jeff Francis and the blazing hot Colorado Rockies in Game One.

Matsuzaka pitched effectively for six innings, walking no one while striking out three. He mixed up his pitches well and brilliantly located his slider away to right handers. Okajima also turned in a solid peformance in the biggest game of his career, inducing several key fly ball outs before being relieved by Papelbon in the 8th with two men on.

The Red Sox survived apallingly poor defense from Julio Lugo, who dropped an easy pop up with two outs in the seventh and then bobbled a potential double play ball in the 8th. Papelbon was able to bail him out, however, with a fastball reaching 98-99 MPH.

For the Indians, it was a night of missed opportunities and a disastrous game for the normally clutch 3B Casey Blake, who grounded into an inning ending double play in the 7th with two men on down 3-2. The next inning, Blake’s error with no one out cost the Indians a run as the scrappy Dustin Pedroia belted a two run home run that barely cleared the wall and finished with a huge offensive game, going 3-for-5 with 5 RBI and 3 runs.

For Matsuzaka, the win was vindicating after he came under a barrage of criticism in both the American and Japanese press for his second half struggles. For Okajima and the sox, his clutch performance must be a huge boost of confidence as he had his own struggles down the stretch in 2007. In their biggest games in MLB to date, both came through.