Those Pesky Rays Do It Again

In 2008, when you look up resilient in the dictionary, you should find a picture of the Tampa Bay Rays. Every time the Red Sox appear ready to finally retake the top spot in the AL East, the Rays come through with a clutch win.

Last night was more of the same as Tampa Bay (89-60) had a walk-off 2-1 win against the Red Sox (89-62), giving the Rays a one-game lead in the division.

What started as an old fashioned pitchers duel between Josh Beckett and Andy Sonnanstine was decided by the bullpens as Dioner Navarro hit a single to deep center off Justin Masterson (6-5) with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth.

It was scoreless until the sixth when Kevin Youkilis drove in Jacoby Ellsbury (2 hits, run) with a sacrifice fly. Carlos Pena-who can officially be dubbed a Red Sox killer-cranked an opposite field homer off Beckett in the seventh to tie it at 1.

Beckett looked great, going eight innings and allowing just the one run on three hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. Sonnanstine went six innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts.

The difference on this night was that although Beckett gave Boston a slightly better start than Sonnanstine, Tampa's trio of relievers were more effective than Masterson.

Grant Balfour recorded four outs, J.P. Howell retired four batters and Dan Wheeler (5-5) struck out the one man he faced, to earn the win.

Tonight is the series (and regular season) finale for Tampa Bay and Boston. The next time the two teams could meet would be in the ALCS. Don't be surprised if that happens.

Matt Garza starts for the Rays tonight with Tim Wakefield taking the mound for the Red Sox.

a pride win for a young team

Barring any crazy collapses, the Tampa Bay Rays are going to the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Your defending World Champion Boston Red Sox should be there as well.

Last night, the Rays (86-57) refused to lose and survived to post one of the biggest wins in Rays history, 5-4 over the Red Sox (85-59) at Fenway.

Jason Bay hit a two-run rope over the Monster in the bottom of the eighth off Dan Wheeler, putting Boston up 4-3 going into the ninth. Jonathan Papelbon had to loosen up quickly but everything seemed to be aligning perfectly for the Red Sox. If they could hold on, they'd regain first place in the AL East for the first time since June 28.

Instead, the Rays rallied to tie it on Dan Johnson's pinch hit homer to right and took the lead on Dioner Navarro's RBI double which knocked in Fernando Perez. Papelbon (5-4), pitching for the third straight day, was ineffective and charged with the blown save, his fifth of the season.

Injury-prone, over-the-hill closer Troy Percival nailed down the final three outs for his 28th save of the season. Mark Kotsay led off the inning with a lenghty at-bat which led to a walk. Jacoby Ellsbury pinch ran. Jason Varitek struck out looking, David Ortiz gave it a ride to right (but this is not the Ortiz of '03-'07) but it fell just short for an out and Coco Crisp popped out to end the game. Ellsbury had stolen second (his 45th steal of the season) and advanced to third on a throwing error on the same play so all Coco had to do was get a hit.

The game was extremely slow, due to the two starting pitchers: Scott Kazmir and Daisuke Matsuzaka. Kazmir was a little more successful: six innings, two runs on five hits, three walks and four strikeouts. Dice-K went 5 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with four walks and five strikeouts.

Boston's bullpen before Papelbon was lights out. Javier Lopez threw a scoreless sixth, Manny Delcarmen got five outs and Hideki Okajima struck out the only batter he faced.

Kevin Youkilis doubled in Dustin Pedroia in the first, giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. The Rays came back with two in the third. Dice-K hit Cliff Floyd with the bases loaded and Willie Aybar hit a sacrifice fly.

In the fourth, Jason Bartlett doubled which scored Gabe Gross. Mike Lowell homered in the bottom of the inning for the Red Sox, setting the stage for Bay's clutch homer.

Josh Beckett faces Andy Sonnanstine tonight in the series finale. After the Rays finally won its first game at Fenway this season, Boston will need a strong outing from its big game ace. Papelbon shouldn't be available so the late innings could be a nightmare for Boston.

Some Nightmare Fuel

The baseball world is quickly taking notice as the Tampa Bay Rays once again knocked off the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 last night at Tropicana Field.

Boston has now lost four straight games and it looks to salvage something from Tampa before heading to New York for four (not three like I said) games with the Yankees.

Is there a better top three of a rotation than Scott Kazmir, James Shields and Matt Garza? If you asked me after last night, I'd say probably not. Following up Shields' fine performance Monday, Garza was great last night.

The young right-hander went to 7-4 after seven innings. He gave up one unearned run on five hits with three strikeouts. Reliever J.P. Howell struck out two of the three men he faced (he walked the other) and substitute closer Grant Balfour recorded four outs for his second save of the season. Troy Percival was placed on the DL after last night's game.

Boston's (50-36) offense continued to scuffle without Ortiz. It doesn't help that Jacoby Ellsbury has been slumping big time, same goes for Manny. And Jason Varitek? He pinch hit and struck out twice last night, the captain is currently enduring the worst slump of his career.

Tampa Bay (51-32) and the Red Sox both had six hits but the Rays made those count a little more.

Tim Wakefield (5-6) pitched well but didn't get any run support. Wake went seven innings, giving up two runs (one earned) on five hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

Carl Crawford scored on a Wakefield wild pitch in the first, putting Tampa up 1-0.

Boston tied it with some aggressive play of their own. Ellsbury had reached on an error, stole second (his 35th steal of the season) and eventually scored on J.D. Drew's sacrifice fly.

Underrated Rays catcher Dioner Navarro pushed his team back ahead, 2-1, with an RBI single which plated Evan Langoria in the fourth.

Navarro struck again in the eighth when he knocked in Carlos Pena with another RBI single, this time off Sox reliever Craig Hanson.

Alex Cora reached base with a two-out double in the ninth off Balfour (three strikeouts) but struck out Varitek on a high fastball (which is still Tek's big hole in the strike zone).

Dice-K matches up with Kazmir tonight as the Rays look to sweep the Sox. So far in the 11 games between the teams this season, the home team is unbeaten. Boston is 6-0 against Tampa Bay at Fenway and Tampa is 5-0 at the Trop.