Going from worst to first, the Tampa Bay Rays completed a shocking run to their first pennant, holding off the defending champion Boston Red Sox 3-1 Sunday night behind Matt Garza’s incredible pitching in Game 7 of the AL Championship Series.”It’s unbelievable,” center fielder B.J. Upton said. “We battled a lot of adversity this year. We stuck together as a team.”And, they showed a bit of Boston-like resolve when they needed it.The Rays nearly let the series slip away when they blew a seven-run lead late in Game 5 and lost meekly Saturday night. The Rays were a 200-1 shot to win the World Series before the season started. Now, they’ll host the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 Wednesday night.

They were the worst in the majors last year, but now the Tampa Bay Rays will play for a spot in the World Series.

“It means everything. We’ve been at the bottom of the barrel for so long,” B.J. Upton said Monday after homering twice in a 6-2 win over Chicago that clinched their AL playoff. “I think there was a point in time where people didn’t even know who we were.”

Andy Sonnanstine pitched 5 2/3 solid innings and manager Joe Maddon’s surprising Rays won 3-1 in the best-of-five series — their first trip to the posts eason. Next up, they’ll host the Boston Red Sox in Game 1 of the AL championship series Friday night.

The Tampa Bay Rays, which never won more than 70 games during its 10 previous seasons, went from 96 losses last year to 97 wins and passed the big-spending Red Sox and New York Yankees in the AL East.