Red Sox 1 win away from Series title

ST. LOUIS -- Get ready, Boston. There's no other outcome now: Pedro Martinez, Manny Ramirez and the Red Sox will either win the World Series or add another historic collapse to their legend.\nThey'll either reverse The Curse that's plagued the team since 1918, or they'll fall apart, just as they did the last four times they got this close.\nMartinez made his long-awaited Series debut a special one, and was bailed out when Ramirez and David Ortiz did as much damage with their arms as bats. Backed by the surprising show of defense, Boston cruised past St. Louis 4-1 Tuesday night for a 3-0 lead and left a crowd that loves its Cardinals booing the home team.\nUntil this October, it was considered almost impossible for any baseball team to recover from such a deficit in the postseason. No one had ever done it -- that is, until the Red Sox bounced back to stun New York in the American League championship series.\nAnd now, after being only three outs away from getting swept last week, Boston is on the verge of sweeping the club that led the majors in wins this year and claiming the ultimate prize.\nDerek Lowe will try to finish it off Wednesday night, with Jason Marquis starting Game 4 for St. Louis.\nPitching a day after his 33rd birthday, Martinez threw seven innings of shutout ball, holding the limp Cardinals to three hits and retiring his final 14 batters.\nRamirez put Martinez ahead with a first-inning homer and the three-time Cy Young winner held it, helped by superb defense and shaky baserunning. Added up, the Red Sox set a team record with their seventh straight postseason win, bettering the streak of six capped off by Babe Ruth's win in the 1916 Series.\nThat Martinez won was hardly amazing. That Boston's defense contributed was downright shocking.\nThe Red Sox made eight errors and still won the first two games. This time, they were flawless in the field -- and maybe even better than that.\nRamirez threw out Larry Walker at the plate from left field to end the first inning. The lumbering Ortiz, in the lineup because Boston did not have the DH slot, alertly caught losing pitcher Jeff Suppan later.\nCombined with a couple of more two-out runs, the Red Sox were home free.\nRamirez was the MVP of the first inning, by far.\nAfter getting some pine tar from the top of his gooey batting helmet, he hit a solo home run with two outs into the loge level in left field. Ramirez was familiar with Suppan, going 7-for-18 with three homers against his former teammate.\nAhead 1-0, Boston did it again with defense in the third.\nSuppan started it with a swinging-bunt single and Edgar Renteria hit a double that sent Nixon sliding feet first into a warning track puddle.\nAgain the crowd came to its feet, sensing the big hit that St. Louis needed. Walker instead rapped a weak grounder to second baseman Mark Bellhorn, which should have easily been enough to advance the runners and score the tying run.