I already posted my love letter to the Tampa Bay Rays last night so I'm not going to write any more unnecessary platitudes and slurping.
There's no need to dress anything up when Tampa Bay (85-67) closed out its season series with the Boston Red Sox (87-65) this afternoon at Fenway Park with a 8-5 win.
The victory propelled the Rays to a 12-6 advantage over the Red Sox this season and most importantly, it put Tampa Bay just two games behind Boston with 10 games left in the 2011 regular season. If necessary, Game 163 would be at the Trop next week.
If you can think of something nice to say about a team that lost six of its last seven against a divisional foe, including a four-game sweep this weekend at home, I'd like to hear it. To say the Red Sox are struggling is the understatement of the month. A split of the four games probably would have buried the Rays but now, Boston has to fight until the end of the regular season.
David Price didn't figure into the decision as he left after four innings (he was hit in the chest by a line drive). He allowed two earned runs on three hits with three walks and two strikeouts.
As expected, Tim Wakefield (7-7) was no match for Price or Tampa Bay. Career win No. 201 had to wait as he went five fruitless innings. He allowed six runs (two earned) on six hits with a walk and five strikeouts. Two throwing errors by third baseman Mike Aviles proved to be particularly costly.
Tampa Bay took any intrigue out of it early on an NFL Sunday and we'll thank them for that since the Patriots were playing at 4:15 p.m. Johnny Damon had an RBI double, Matt Joyce (3 hits, 3 RBIs) had an RBI single and Desmond Jennings (2 hits) had an RBI single all in the second inning.
Sean Rodriguez's sacrifice fly in the fourth made it 4-0 before Darnell McDonald got Boston on the board in the frame with a two-run double.
Things got sloppy in the fifth (a trend in Boston's death spiral) as Jennings scored on Jarrod Saltalamacchia's passed ball and Evan Longoria scored on Aviles' error.
Joyce's two-run single in the seventh put it out of reach at 8-2 in favor of Tampa Bay.
Aviles (2 hits) had a great series as he added a three-run bomb (his seventh of the season) in the seventh.
Joel Peralta got four outs (what a concept) to record his fifth save and his second in the last two contests.
So it's all come down to this: 10 more games to decide who gets the AL Wild Card. While the Rays are playing so much better at the moment, the Red Sox do have a distinct advantage schedule-wise.
Boston has four more games at home against the Orioles, three against the Yankees next weekend in the Bronx and then closes with three against Baltimore in Camden Yards. Tampa Bay has four in New York followed by three at home against Toronto and they end with three at the Trop vs. New York.
No rest for the weary as the Red Sox have a day-night doubleheader tomorrow with the O's. Kyle Weiland takes on Jeremy Guthrie at 1:05 p.m. and John Lackey faces Brian Matusz at 7:10 p.m. Two awful matchups in a season that is quickly dissolving into a complete debacle.
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