Rays-White Sox: Tampa Bay beats Chicago in Game Two of ALDS

The young, resilient Rays are one win from breezing into the American League Championship Series.

All-Star Scott Kazmir settled down after a shaky start, Akinori Iwamura hit a go-ahead, two-run homer and the A.L. East champions beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 Friday for a 2-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.

"This is just awesome," said Rocco Baldelli, who singled in a run.

Fast Facts

• Akinori Iwamura's go-ahead homer was his second home run of the season off a left-handed pitcher, and his first since June 24 at Florida.

• J.P. Howell entered with two runners on and nobody out in the seventh inning. He held the White Sox scoreless through the eighth before Chad Bradford closed out the victory.

• The White Sox have squandered two-run leads in each of the first two games.

• The White Sox, who lost once in 12 playoff games during their run to the 2005 World Series title, have dropped back-to-back playoff games for the first time since they were swept in the 2000 ALDS by the Mariners.

-- ESPN research

Giving many fans a close-up look of the formula that transformed Tampa Bay from a last-place team to a power, the Rays rallied for the second-straight day and remained undefeated in their young postseason history.

The Rays go for a sweep when the series resumes Sunday in Chicago. Tampa Bay's Matt Garza (11-9) faces John Danks (12-9), trying to seal a match up against World Series champion Boston or the Los Angeles Angels in the next round.

"We're a relaxed bunch," Baldelli said. "We chill out in the clubhouse. We have fun. That's what got us here."

Of the 35 teams to fall behind 2-0 in the division series before this year, just five have come back to advance, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

It's been a bleak October for both Chicago teams. The Cubs lost their first two National League playoff games at home to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"We're against the wall," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "We've got to fight like a cat, and now it's a must-win game."

Chicago started quickly, scoring twice in the first on Jim Thome's RBI single and Alexei Ramirez's sacrifice fly and Kazmir struck out Juan Uribe with the bases loaded after three-straight foul balls.

Dioner Navarro's run-scoring single off Mark Buehrle in the second began the comeback, following a two-base throwing error by Ramirez at second, and Iwamura gave Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead with a drive into the left-center field stands off Buehrle in the fifth

"I knew it was gone," Iwamura said.

The Rays added three runs in the eighth, when B.J. Upton tripled and scored on Carl Crawford's single, which chased Buehrle. Baldelli's run-scoring single against Octavio Dotel made it 5-2, and Navarro followed with a RBI double off Matt Thornton.

At 24, Kazmir is the youngest member of Tampa Bay's rotation and already the franchise's career victories leader. But high pitch counts also have been an issue for the two-time All-Star, who threw 37 in the first inning.

He hit Orlando Cabrera with a pitch, walked Nick Swisher, and gave up a single to Jermaine Dye, which loaded the bases with no outs in the first.

"Be patient. That was my thought," Rays manager Joe Maddon said of Kazmir's struggles. "It's really important that we get him going. ...If he was able to get through that, I thought he might be able to settle in; and he did."

The White Sox threatened again in the second and fourth but couldn't score. They stranded eight runners through five innings, allowing the Rays to stay close until Iwamura's opposite-field homer put Tampa Bay ahead.

The sellout crowd of 35,257 at Tropicana Field stood and chanted "Aki! Aki! Aki!" for Iwamura until he poked his head out of the dugout for a curtain call. He homered once in 192 at-bats against left-handed pitching during the regular season.

Kazmir allowed two runs and eight hits in five-and-one-thirds innings, leaving after Uribe's leadoff single and a sacrifice bunt in the sixth. Maddon brought in Grant Balfour to face Orlando Cabrera, who had a heated exchange with the Rays' reliever before striking out in crucial situation in Game One.

Balfour got the better of Cabrera again, but this time without the dramatics of Thursday when the players shouted at each other after Balfour said something to himself on the mound and the White Sox shortstop mistakenly thought he was talking to him.

Cabrera grounded to second base, moving Uribe to third base, before Balfour escaped the jam by getting Swisher on a flyout.

Tampa Bay's bullpen pitched three-and-two-thirds scoreless innings, with J.P Howell and Chad Bradford following Balfour.