Carlos Peña hit a 3-run homer off Mike Timlin in the 14th inning to give the Tampa Bay Rays a 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 38,114 at Fenway Park. The win drops the Red Sox to 2.5 games out of first place behind the Rays.
Javier Lopez started the 14th by striking out Gabe Gross. Timlin came in and got Jason Bartlett to ground out for the second out. Akinori Iwamura singled and went to second on a Rocco Baldelli single. Peña then took a fastball the opposite way into the Green Monster seats for a 3-run homer and 4-1 Rays lead. Timlin followed that with a walk to Ben Zobrist but struck out Wily Aybar to end the inning.
The Red Sox didn’t go quietly in the bottom half of the inning but couldn’t get the job done even with loading up the bases with no outs.
Jacoby Ellsbury led off the inning with a double of Rays closer Troy Percival. He then got a little wild as he walked Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz to load up the bases. Rays manager Joe Maddon came out to the mound with the trainer and after some discussion, Percival left the game with an unknown injury. Jason Hammel came in to face Kevin Youkilis and got him to hit a fly ball that scored Ellsbury to cut the lead to 4-2 as Pedroia went to third. Hammel then got a big strikeout of Jason Bay and Alex Cora flew out to center field to end the game.
Josh Beckett was sharp in second start off the disabled list.
Josh Beckett started this one for the Red Sox and was outstanding again in his second start back from the disabled list. He went 6 innings, allowing 1 run on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7. The bullpen was outstanding behind him as well as Hideki Okajima, Justin Masterson, Manny Delcarmen and Lopez combined on 7 1/3 scoreless innings of work. Timlin worked the final 2/3 of an inning giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and a walk to take the loss.
Pedroia led the Red Sox with 2 hits and was on base 6 times during the game and also drove in a run. Jed Lowrie also had 2 hits while Ellsbury, Mark Kotsay, Jason Varitek and Chris Carter had the other hits for the local nine.
The Rays got on the scoreboard first in the 2nd inning.
Cliff Floyd reached on an infield single to start the inning and Aybar followed with a triple scoring Floyd to put the Rays up 1-0. Beckett would leave Aybar stranded at third though as he struck out Eric Hinske, got Dioner Navarro to ground out to short and Gross grounded back to Beckett for the final out.
Andy Sonnanstine matched his counterpart in the mound with a strong outing but the Red Sox got to him for a run in the bottom of the 3rd.
Lowrie led off with a single. Varitek then grounded into a fielder’s choice but an error by Iwamura allowed Lowrie to be safe at second. Ellsbury grounded into a double play as Lowrie moved over to third with 2 outs. Pedroia then laced a double down the left field line to score Lowrie to tie the game at 1.
Both teams had opportunities to add runs in the 5th inning.
Bartlett had a 1-out double and went to third on an Iwamura ground out. Beckett then got a little wild as he walked Dan Johnson and Peña to load up the bases. He escaped any damage on the scoreboard as Floyd flew out to end the inning.
Lowrie led off the bottom half of the inning with a double off Sonnanstine. He then got the next two outs of the inning but hit Pedroia to give the local nine runners on the corners. He recovered to get Big Papi to ground out escaping any damage himself.
Okajima got himself into trouble in the 8th inning but was bailed out by Masterson.
Justin Masterson reacts after Gabe Gross grounded out to end the 8th.
Peña led off the inning with a double and then Okajima walked the pinch-hitter Zobrist. Francona then went to the bullpen for Masterson who came in and got Aybar to ground out to first as the runners moved up 90 feet. The Red Sox decided to intentionally walk Fernando Perez. Masterson followed that with a strikeout of Navarro and got Gross to ground out to second to end the inning.
The Red Sox had opportunities to score in the 10th, 11th and 12th innings but were unsuccessful as were the Rays in the 13th inning.
Notes and musings:
Rays @ Red Sox 9.10.08 boxscore
Tuesday marked just the 3rd time this season that the Red Sox have lost when leading after 8 innings, the others May 7 at Detroit and May 9 at Minnesota. Last night was the 1st time that Boston has been defeated at home when having the lead after 8 innings since August 17, 2007 vs. Los Angeles Angels.
The Red Sox are now 17-21 in one-run games in 2008, 14-4 at home and 3-17 on the road.
MINOR LEAGUE AWARDS FOR AUGUST:
Player: SS Yamaico Navarro, Lancaster
Pitcher: RH Kyle Weiland, Lowell
Baserunner: INF-OF Kris Negron, Lancaster
Base Stealer: OF Wilfred Pichardo, GCL
Defender: C Tim Federowicz, Lowell
Mike Lowell became the 286th player in major league history to reach the 200-home run plateau when he connected in the 4th inning on Tuesday. He joins Bill Freehan, Oscar Gamble, and Don Mincher with 200 homers.
Coming into tonight, Kevin Youkilis has reached base safely via a hit, walk, or hbp in each of his last 43 games, the longest streak in the major leagues since Baltimore’s Kevin Millar had a 52-game run, June 21-August 25, 2007.
The longest game the Red Sox had played this year was 13 innings and that happened twice. Once on May 30th and the other on June 22nd.
Sox on streaks:
Coco Crisp has an 11-game hitting streak
Jason Bay saw his 5-game hitting streak end
Kevin Youkilis saw his 4-game hitting streak end
Sean Casey has a 4-game hitting streak
Jacoby Ellsbury has a 3-game hitting streak
