In what turned out to be a strange 9th inning, the Tampa Bay Rays were able to hold off the Boston Red Sox 5-4 in front of 34,145 mostly bandwagon Rays fans at Tropicana Field. The win gives the Rays a 1½ game lead over the Red Sox in the AL East.
Troy Percival came out for the Rays in the 9th inning and started it with a strikeout of Manny Ramirez. Mike Lowell followed that with a double to deep center and then Kevin Youkilis reached on infield single. Percival then got Brandon Moss to hit a fly ball to right field that Gabe Gross was standing under until the ball hit the catwalk and fell in for a double that also scored Lowell on the play. Jason Varitek then hit a sac fly to cut the lead to 5-4.
While Percival was going to back up third on the sac fly, he started limping. After throwing a couple of warmup pitches, Rays skipper Joe Maddon decided to pull Percival from the game rather than risk further injury even though Percival didn’t want to leave. Meanwhile, the Red Sox had put Sean Casey in the on-deck circle to bat for Julio Lugo but with Percival leaving the game for the lefty J.P. Howell, the Sox let Lugo bat. Howell came in and got Lugo to line out to short to end a wacky 9th inning.
Justin Masterson started for the visiting nine and wasn’t at his best again. He gave up 4 runs on 5 hits and 5 walks while striking out 5 in 6 innings of work. Masterson threw a career-high 105 pitches. Chris Smith struggled in a 1/3 of an inning as he allowed a run and walked 3. Javier Lopez worked 1 2/3 inning allowing a hit.
Mike Lowell led the Red Sox offense with 3 hits and an RBI. Brandon Moss was 2-for-3 with an RBI while J.D. Drew smacked his 12th home run of the month.
Masterson was greeted rudely by B.J. Upton in the bottom of the first as he took the first pitch he saw for a solo home run.
James Shields started for the Rays and kept the Red Sox hitters at bay for most of the game. He set down the first 10 batters he faced before Pedroia reached on an infield single. After a Drew fly out, Manny reached on a walk and Lowell brought in Pedroia with a single to tie the game at 1.
In the 4th, Masterson got the first two outs before a 2-out walk to Dioner Navarro. Gross made him pay for the walk as Masterson left a changeup out over the plate that Gross crushed for a 2-run homer and a 3-1 Rays lead.
Another 2-out walk in the 5th killed Masterson. He walked Willy Aybar and Aybar would end up scoring on a Carlos Peña double.
With 2-outs in the top of the 6th, Drew smacked a solo home run after what should have been a called strike 3. The home run cut the lead to 4-2.
The Rays added a run in the 7th when Smith walked 3 and then Lopez gave up a fielder’s choice RBI to Jonny Gomes.
Tim Wakefield will look to continue his success at Tropicana Field tomorrow night and try to get the Red Sox back to their winning ways.
Notes and musings:
Red Sox @ Rays 6.30.08 boxscore
If you’re near a computer tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 PM, head over to the NESN Playground for a chat with Hall of Famer and NESN analyst Dennis Eckersley.
6 of the 7 home runs Masterson has allowed this season have been by left-handed batters.
Masterson has given up four homers in 12 innings against Tampa Bay this season.
Mike Lowell and Dustin Pedroia both extended their hitting streaks to 8 games while Pedroia extended his road hitting streak to 12 games.
If Masterson can keep the ball in the yard he is going to win some games.
Most definitely. He also needs to find a pitch to get lefties out but that will come with his development. We have to remember he wasn’t supposed to be up here until maybe a September callup. And it’s not like he’s been pitching all that badly in his starts.
Plus he has had appearances in a few homer friendly parks as well in Tampa and Cincy but he did escape with no jacks in Philly.