Mark Bellhorn hit a drive off the screen attached to Pesky's Pole in right field in the eighth inning, and the Boston Red Sox held on to take the highest-scoring opener in World Series history, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 11-9 on Saturday night.

"I'm not here trying to be a hero, I'm just here trying to win four games," Bellhorn said.

Right after pulling a long foul, Bellhorn lofted the two-run shot off Julian Tavarez that decided a game in which the Red Sox blew an early five-run lead.

Cardinals right fielder Larry Walker was in position to make a play on Bellhorn's homer, standing at the 302-foot mark.

"If the pole wasn't there and if the stands went in about 50 more feet, I would have caught it. Unfortunately, it didn't work that way for us," he said.

Game 2 will be Sunday night, with Curt Schilling again testing his sutured ankle against St. Louis' Matt Morris.

Ortiz kept up his October rampage, hitting a three-run drive for Boston's first Series homer at Fenway since Fisk's famous shot. The ALCS MVP wound up knocking in four runs -- and knocking out second baseman Tony Womack with a shot to the collarbone.

Walker did his best for the Cardinals, and still they lost their seventh straight Series road game. He homered, doubled twice, singled and hit a fly ball to left field that Ramirez muffed, helping St. Louis make it 9-all in the eighth.

"That's why you play the game. Those are tough breaks. It's a challenge, but you know what We've had to deal with challenges all year. It's just another challenge that we've overcome," Red Sox closer Keith Foulke said.

Foulke got five outs for the victory as the Red Sox won their fifth straight postseason game, a surge that started when they came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the New York Yankees in the ALCS, and become the first team to do so in MLB history.

(Shenzhen Daily October 25, 2004)