Rays Squeak Out Weird Game Over Red Sox, 2-1

There's no other way to say it: tonight's Rays-Red Sox game was just bizarre for many reasons.

Tampa Bay (24-14, 14-3 home) beat Boston (17-20, 8-9 away) 2-1 in the series opener at Tropicana Field. Somehow the game took three hours and 29 minutes, maybe that had something to do with the three balks allowed by Red Sox pitchers (one proved especially costly). Oh and Rays second baseman Will Rhymes fainted and had to be taken off the field on a stretcher in the eighth after getting drilled on the arm by a Franklin Morales pitch.

Predictably, the Red Sox' fraudulent five-game win streak was snapped, along with their stretch of five quality starts in a row from their pitchers. Clay Buchholz (4-2) wasn't bad but he could only last five innings. He allowed two earned runs on six hits with five strikeouts and a walk. Andrew Miller, Matt Albers, Morales and Scott Atchison teamed up for three scoreless innings of relief.

Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson (4-0) stayed perfect this season, going six innings and allowing one earned run on five hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Jake McGee (7th) and Joel Peralta (8th) had scoreless innings before Fernando Rodney struck out two for his 12th save of the season.

Cody Ross reached on a two-out single in the ninth but Rodney retired Daniel Nava on a grounder to second.

Carlos Pena scored in the second on a balk by Buchholz but Nava tied it up in the fourth with an RBI single that brought home Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The winning run came on Luke Scott's sacrifice fly in the sixth but truthfully, it should be had some sort of assist to Ross. He didn't get a proper read on a routine fly ball to right, which allowed Matt Joyce to tag up and score-something he wouldn't have done if Ross didn't dance before catching it.

Felix Doubront (3-1) faces Matt Moore (1-3) tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) in the abbreviated series finale. A win by the Red Sox would help prove that they can beat a good team on the road. Plus it would give them momentum heading into their first interleague series of the 2012 season-this weekend in Philadelphia.

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