Rays-Red Sox: None Done Yet

The Tampa Bay Rays got a dramatic come-from-behind win in the first game and held on in the second to sweep a crucial two-game series over the Boston Red Sox.

If you love baseball, there's almost nothing that beats the exciting victory by the Tampa Bay Rays in the first game. Desperately needing victories against the Red Sox to stay in the Wild Card race, the capacity crowd at Tropicana Field witnessed a tremendous pitching duel between aces—Boston's Jon Lester versus Tampa Bay's Matt Garza.

Both would be gone by the time the game was decided, but it was still amazing to see top level pitching between contenders.

• Lester's Line—six innings, three hits allowed, one earned run, and two walks, while striking out 10.
• Garza—seven innings, three hits, two earned runs, two walks, and six strikeouts. 

For Garza, two of those three hits would be major mistakes. Kevin Youkilis homered in the second inning and Dustin Pedroia would blast a solo shot in the sixth to build a 2-0 lead.

The edge would hold until the seventh, when a Jason Bartlett infield hit would score Carlos Pena.

In the eighth, Evan Longoria—who had struck out in each of his three previous at bats—stepped to the plate to lead off the inning and rocked a bomb to center off of reliever Daniel Bard to tie the game at two. 

The game would then descend into the twilight zone. After Ben Zobrist drew a walk, Willy Aybar dropped a bunt to move the runner into scoring position. Bard charged off the mound to field the bunt and then air mailed the throw to first into right field.

Zobrist raced around third base and headed home to give Tampa Bay the lead. As Zobrist reached the plated, Boston right fielder J.D. Drew began waving his hands wildly.

As Aybar rounded third and headed home, the umpires huddled. They then took both runs off the board, placing Aybar at second and Zobrist at third. As the crowd rained boos, Rays manager Joe Maddon darted out of the Tampa Bay dugout for an explanation.

He wouldn't like the answer. The ball had gotten stuck between equipment bags and by rule 7.05g, the ball is automatically ruled dead and makes it like a ground-rule double: two bases for each runner from where they were at the time of the pitch.

This is a terrible rule that ruins the spirit of the play and rewarded the Red Sox for committing an error.

Carlos Pena followed with a walk, loading the bases with no outs. Tampa Bay seemingly fell apart at the plate. BJ Upton and Gabe Gross (pinch hitting for Dioner Navarro) struck out and Pat Burrell (pinch hitting for Gabe Kapler) grounded out, enabling Boston to escape the inning with the game tied.

After retiring the Red Sox in order in the top half of the ninth, Tampa Bay once again had the potential game-winning run in scoring position after leadoff man Jason Bartlett drew a walk and stole second base.

After Crawford flew out, the Red Sox intentionally walked Longoria, and then got Ben Zobrist to ground into an inning-ending double play to end the threat.

Into free baseball we went and in the top of the 10th, it would be Boston who loaded the bases with only one out. Pedroia grounded out to Longoria, who stepped on third and fired to first to end the inning and the threat.

In the bottom of the 10th, Tampa Bay once again loaded the bases with no one out. Needing only a long fly ball to end the game, Gabe Gross popped out to shallow left, Michel Hernandez popped out to second base and Jason Bartlett struck out. Tampa Bay had 16 strikeouts in the first game.

Twice the winning run was on third with no one out, both times the Rays had failed to bring him home.

The game stretched to the bottom of the 13th inning. With two outs and Michel Hernandez on third, Longoria came to the plate again to face the last man in the Boston bullpen, Takashi Saito.

After taking ball one, Saito left a meatball over the plate and Longoria left no doubt, launching it deep into the left field bleachers and sending the Trop into an eruption.

The 4-2 victory would pull Tampa Bay within four games of the Sox.

The second game started much better for Tampa Bay, as the Rays brought the big bats to the trop. After Jason Bay homered for Boston in the top of the second off of Rays starter David Price, Tampa Bay came right back with a two-run shot by Carlos Pena to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.

In the third, Carl Crawford blasted one to left field to make it 4-1 Tampa Bay.

The lead would hold until the top of the sixth, when Boston's newly acquired Victor Martinez launched a solo shot into left to shave the Rays lead to 4-2. Again, Tampa Bay answered immediately, as the much maligned Pat Burrell blasted a bomb to that magnet in left field to re-establish the Rays' three-run edge.

The Red Sox scored again in the seventh, after a dropped fly ball by Ben Zobrist put Rocco Baldelli on base. Jed Lowrie would ground to second and Tampa Bay conceded the run to keep it from being a big inning.

Tampa Bay would again get the run back in the bottom half of the inning when Jason Barlett blasted one to left for the Rays' fourth home run of the ballgame and a 6-3 advantage.

Once again, the Red Sox threatened in the eighth, getting men on second and third with no one out. Two ground balls would allow Dustin Pedroia to cross the plate, but Mike Lowell popped out to short center to end the threat with Tampa Bay still leading 6-4.

This time, Tampa Bay would not answer and the Rays' closer J.P. Howell came in to lock down the ninth. After walking JD Drew, he struck out Jason Varitek, Jed Lowrie, and got Jacoby Elsbury to ground out to second to secure his 12th save of the season.

Once again, Price pitched well at home, going six strong innings, scattering six hits, allowed two runs (the solo homers), and struck out five for his fifth victory.

Boston starter Brad Penny didn't fair as well, going six innings, allowing six hits but five earned runs, while striking out six and walking two to take the loss.  

The pair of victories by the Rays pulled Tampa Bay within three games of the Red Sox in the Wild Card race. It was also the 14th victory in the last 16 games against Boston in Tampa Bay.

With the Red Sox on their way to the Big Apple to face the Yankees, Tampa Bay has the opportunity to gain ground on one of the two combatants—that is, if they can take care of business on the west coast against a pretty decent Seattle Mariners team.