BOSTON (AP) — The pitching was strong, the hitting was timely and the fielding was crisp as the St. Louis Cardinals bounced back from Wednesday’s loss and tied the World Series at a game apiece. Rookie Michael Wacha remains unbeaten this month after combining with two relievers on a four-hitter in the Redbirds’ 4-2 triumph over the Red Sox in Boston. Wacha improved to 4-0 with a 1.00 ERA in the postseason, although his earned run average was 0.33 until David Ortiz hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth. Wacha allowed three hits in six innings.

But the Cardinals put together a three-run seventh after Ortiz went deep for the second straight night, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs on Matt Carpenter’s sac -fly with the bases loaded. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia mishandled the throw to the plate and pitcher Craig Breslow threw wildly to third base, bringing home the tiebreaking run. Carlos Beltran followed with an RBI single later in the seventh.

Matt Holliday tripled and scored on Yadier Molina’s grounder in the fourth inning for the Cardinals’ first run. Cards setup man Carlos Martinez struck out three while tossing two hitless innings. Trevor Rosenthal struck out the side in the ninth on just 11 pitches to notch the save.

The series will shift to St. Louis for Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 Sunday. Red Sox manager John Farrell has announced that Jake Peavy will start the third game, followed by Clay Buchholz. Joe Kelly and Lance Lynn will start those games for the Redbirds. Jon Lester tossed 7 2/3 shutout innings in Boston’s 8-1 victory in Game 1, and then spent Thursday denying he had an illegal substance in his glove. Lester says his glove contained only rosin, a legal substance found on pitcher’s mounds.

A Cardinals minor leaguer posted a screen shot on Twitter showing a green substance on Lester’s glove and wrote: “Jon Lester using a little Vaseline inside the glove tonight?”