BOSTON (AP) – Mark Bellhorn is becoming a big bopper, too.

With the World Series opener spinning out of control for the Boston Red Sox, the No. 9 hitter came up big again, this time against the St. Louis Cardinals.

The score was 9-9 in the eighth inning Saturday night, and the Red Sox were on the verge of becoming the first team to take a five-run lead in Game 1 and lose.

But up came Bellhorn, after Jason Varitek reached on Edgar Renteria’s error on a ball deep into the shortstop hole leading off the bottom of the inning. Bellhorn connected for a homer off the right-field foul pole to give Boston an 11-9 victory.

“I’m not here to try to be a hero,” he said. “I’m just here to try to win four games.”

Four nights earlier at Yankee Stadium, Bellhorn’s shot down the left-field line went over the wall for a three-run homer that sent the Red Sox on to a 4-2 victory that tied the AL championship series 3-all. Then he homered again in the 10-3, series-clinching win the next night.

Against St. Louis reliever Julian Tavarez, Bellhorn took a strike and then fouled off a pitch down the right-field line.

“I hit (that) one pretty good, but the wind’s kind of blowing, and it blew it foul,” Bellhorn said.

Boston manager Terry Francona thought it would be a homer and couldn’t believe it went about 50 feet foul.

Now Bellhorn took the third pitch for a ball, then he pulled another one down the right-field line and the 35,035 fans at Fenway Park watched and waited.

Would it?

Could it?

Yes, it did.

The ball hit the screen attached to Pesky’s Pole, and headed back down to the field below, a mirror image of Carlton Fisk’s famous World Series shot off the left-field pole that won Game 6 against Cincinnati in 1975.

Varitek and Bellhorn circled the bases, and the crowd went wild.

“That last pitch was a slider, and I just put a good swing on it,” Bellhorn said.

David Ortiz had been the star earlier in the night, hitting a three-run homer that went above – that’s right, above – Pesky’s pole.

Then Papi added a wicked run-scoring single in the seventh that hit the lip of the infield, hopped up and hit Tony Womack in the collarbone, knocking him out of the game.

But it wasn’t a night for the stars in the middle of the order.

“He took really good swings,” Francona said, referring to Bellhorn, “and we made it hold up.”