BOSTON – J.D. Drew stuck with his usual laid-back approach after looking terrible the previous four times at the plate. It finally paid off — and ended a long day.

Drew struck out four consecutive times before he singled home Carl Crawford from second with two outs in the 14th inning Saturday, lifting the Boston Red Sox to a 9-8 win over the Oakland Athletics after closer Jonathan Papelbon blew a four-run lead in the ninth.

Drew, known as one of the quieter, more reserved players in the Red Sox clubhouse, felt like he was going to make contact. He rarely gets too excited and it even showed as he got dressed quickly after his game-winning hit.

“I had some good swings in all the earlier at-bats,” Drew said. “Sure it’s aggravating, you never want to strike out four times in a game. Even though I struck out four times, I thought I had some quality swings.”

Boston recovered for its 18th win in 26 games after Papelbon blew the big lead and was ejected along with catcher Jason Varitek a few minutes apart in the ninth.

“I just lost my cool,” Varitek said. “You can’t argue balls and strikes.”

Crawford had four hits and drove in three runs and Adrian Gonzalez had a solo homer and three hits for the Red Sox. Boston has beaten Oakland 14 of the last 18 games in Fenway Park.

Conor Jackson had a tying, pinch-hit two-run single in the ninth and a key double in the 11th as Oakland grabbed the lead, but Andrew Bailey couldn’t hold it. The Athletics lost their fifth straight.

Alfredo Aceves (3-1) pitched four innings for the win. He gave up a run in the 11th before Boston rallied in the bottom of the inning.

In the game-winning rally, Crawford doubled into the left-field corner against Guillermo Moscoso (2-1), the Athletics ninth pitcher. After Jed Lowrie was intentionally walked, Drew lined a single to right-center to end the 5-hour, 17-minute game.

Landon Powell, who struck out four times and went 1 for 7, grounded out with runners on first and second to end the top of the 14th. After that, the crowd — that was left — cheered when “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” was played for a second time.

Oakland had taken an 8-7 lead in the 11th inning on Ryan Sweeney’s sacrifice fly against Aceves. Boston tied it with two outs in the bottom half. Jarrod Saltalamacchia doubled high off the left-field wall against Bailey and scored on Jacoby Ellsbury’s double down the right-field line.

Oakland, which entered the day scoring the second-fewest runs in the AL, scored four runs in a wild ninth against Papelbon after second baseman Dustin Pedroia booted a potential game-ending double-play grounder. Both Varitek and Papelbon were both ejected by home plate umpire Tony Randazzo in the inning.

“It was a great, great comeback to tie the game in the ninth, then to actually go ahead in extra innings,” A’s Manager Bob Geren said. “We had the game. We were in pretty good shape.”

Mark Ellis singled leading off and Daric Barton walked. After Powell struck out, Pedroia had pinch-hitter Coco Crisp’s grounder go through his legs, scoring a run. Pennington’s RBI double made it 7-5 and Varitek was ejected while arguing during the hit.

“If I fielded that ball we would have won about four hours ago,” Pedroia said.