Drew grand in victory

BOSTON – They’ve said a lot of things about J.D. Drew.

They’ve said he fails to love the game.

That he won’t play unless he feels perfect. That he shows all the emotion of a fire hydrant.

That he doesn’t produce like a first-overall draft pick should. That he might be as overpaid as Katie Couric.

They’ve never said he couldn’t play.

So the only surprise about Drew’s grand slam in the first inning Saturday night was the slight fist pump he displayed between first and second base, and the fact that he answered a curtain call from Fenway Park fans who haven’t really embraced him.

The two-out blast off Fausto Carmona’s 98 mph fastball sent Boston winging to a 12-2 romp over Cleveland that tied the American League Championship Series, 3-3.

Tonight’s deciding game will match Game 3 winner Jake Westbrook against Boston’s Daisuke Matsuzaka, as the Sox try to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the ALCS for the second time in four seasons.

“It was important to get a hit in that situation,” Drew said, “because we let a situation like that get away from us earlier in the series. I was very relaxed going into the at-bat. I didn’t want to walk off the field without any runs, and it worked out great. If you don’t swing at the sinker that’s just off the plate against Carmona, you’ve got a chance.

“And I’ve had curtain calls before, so I knew what to do. This was the first one here, so far.”

Drew opted out of his Dodgers contract after 2006 and signed a five-year deal with Boston for $14 million per. He wound up hitting .270 with a career-low 11 home runs and 64 RBIs. In a 33-game stretch that began April 23, Drew hit .156, and went 50 games at one point between home runs.

His deadpan personality didn’t win him sympathy in one of the most emotional sports towns in America.

“He never snapped,” Curt Schilling said. “He’s the definition of even keel. A lot of people would have been squeezing the bat in that situation, but he wasn’t doing that tonight.

“I’m sure he’s not real proud of the year he had, but he could have been pressing tonight and he wasn’t, and it was great to see.”

Drew’s homer followed infield hits by Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis and a walk to David Ortiz.

When Carmona struck out Manny Ramirez and retired Mike Lowell, Drew was standing between the Indians and a morale-boosting escape.

Instead, Drew’s blast found the camera stand over the left-center fence.

The Red Sox then drove Carmona from the game in the third inning, beat up on lefty reliever Rafael Perez and piled up six more runs.

The 10 runs in Boston’s first three innings simplified Schilling’s task, and he improved to 4-0 in the playoffs when his team faces elimination.

Schilling has given up five earned runs in five elimination starts and hasn’t walked a batter in his past three.

The Red Sox have outscored the Indians 22-3 since the sixth inning of Game 4.

Travis Hafner, Cleveland’s third-place hitter, had a single in the ninth inning of Game2 and hasn’t hit a ball out of the infield since. He is 0 for 15 in that span and has struck out 10 times in the series.

And one more bit of karma: Cleveland never has won a Game 7, anywhere.

“For us this has got to be like water off a duck’s back,” Cleveland third baseman Casey Blake said.

“One team plays a couple of good games and then the other one does, and that’s the way a series is going to be when you have two teams like this.”