Evan Longoria continues to rake Boston Red Sox pitching as he had 2 hits, including a home run, and added 5 RBIs to help the Tampa Bay Rays to a 14-5 win in front of 37,773 at Fenway Park in what turned out to be a nice afternoon weather wise for some baseball.
The Red Sox drop to 19-12 on the young season while the Rays improve their record to 15-17 with 6 of those wins coming against the Red Sox this season.
Jon Lester started this one for the Red Sox and after a rough 1st inning, settled down for innings 2-4. He then had a 5th inning to forget where he gave up 6 runs. Lester ended up going 4 1/3 innings, giving up 8 runs on 10 hits and a walk while striking out 6.
The bullpen for once other than Javier Lopez (go figure huh) and Manny Delcarmen wasn’t anything to write home about either.
Hunter Jones worked 2/3 of an inning, allowing 4 runs on 4 hits and a walk. Takashi Saito worked an inning, allowing a run on a hit and a walk. Lopez went 2 innings, giving up a run on a hit and a walk but had two strikeouts. Delcarmen mopped up in the 9th, allowing just a hit and recorded a strikeout.
Despite only giving up 3 runs, Scott Kazmir wasn’t anything spectacular today for the Rays. He went 5 innings, giving up 8 hits and 3 walks while striking out 2. Joe Nelson worked a 1/3 of an inning, allowing 2 runs on a hit and 2 walks. Lance Cormier worked the final 3 2/3 innings, giving up just 1 hit to pick up the save.
Mike Lowell went 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs today and both Rocco Baldelii and Julio Lugo each had 2 hits, including solo home runs for the both of them. Jason Bay added a hit and the other RBI for the local nine.
Lester started the 1st inning by getting B.J. Upton to fly out but then he walked Carl Crawford. Lester may have paid too much attention to keep Crawford at first as he left a pitch out over the plate that Longoria planted into the blacked out seats in center to give the Rays a 2-0 lead.
The Red Sox got back into the game in the 2nd when Baldelli led off with a solo home run into the Green Monster seats to cut the lead to 2-1. It was the first homer in a Red Sox uniform for Baldelli.
Lester was cruising along while his offense was leaving a small village of runners on base. Then the 5th inning happened and it wasn’t pretty for Lester and the Red Sox.
Akinori Iwamura led off with a single and Dioner Navarro singled on a ball that Lugo should have gotten. Upton followed with a bunt single in which Lester probably should have gotten him at first. That loaded the bases up for Crawford who singled in Iwamura to make it 3-1. Longoria then hit a towering fly ball that barely missed going over the Green Monster for a 2-run double as Crawford stopped at third.
Lester struck out Carlos Peña for the first out of the inning and Pat Burrell singled in Crawford and Longoria to make it 7-1. Jason Bartlett singled and that was the end of the afternoon for Lester. Jones was greeted by a Gabe Kapler single that loaded up the bases. The second out came when Iwamura grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Burrell and saw Kapler out at second. The inning finally ended with the Red Sox trailing 8-1 when Navarro popped out to short.
The never quit Sox tried to battle back in the bottom half though.
Ellsbury led off with a single and went to second on a wild pitch by Kazmir. After Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz made outs, Bay singled in Ellsbury to cut the lead to 8-2. Lowell followed with a double that Bay read perfectly as he scored all the way from first to make it 8-3. Baldelli then reached on a error by Longoria and Bailey worked a walk to load up the bases for Jason Varitek. Kazmir escaped the jam by getting the Captain to ground into an inning-ending fielder’s choice.
The Rays put the game out of reach in the 6th when they added four more runs that were all charged to Jones.
Lugo nailed his first home run of the season when he hit an absolute bomb over the Green Monster and onto Landsdowne Street off of Nelson to cut the lead to 13-4. Ellsbury followed with walk but Pedroia grounded into a fielder’s choice that saw Ellsbury out at second. Nelson then walked Big Papi and gave way to Cormier who got JBay to fly out. Lowell knocked in Pedroia with a single make it 13-5.
Longoria finished off the scoring in the 7th when his sacrifice fly plated Upton to give the Rays the final margin of 14-5.
Things may not get any easier for the Red Sox tomorrow night at 8:05 PM as they will have to face their nemesis in Matt Garza. Let’s just hope Josh Beckett of 2007 shows up.
Notes and musings:
Tampa Bay Rays @ Boston Red Sox 5.9.09 box score
Last night Terry Francona earned his 489th win as Red Sox manager, tying Bill Carrigan for 3rd-most in franchise history. He is 11 away from reaching the 500 mark with Boston at 489-351 (.582). Overall, he is 774-714 (.520) in his major league career.
Each of Bay’s last 7 home runs have come with runners on base, while each of his last 3 and 4 of his last 5 have been 3-run shots. Overall, he has 4 3-run homers, 4 2-run homers and one solo blast. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the most multiple-run homers for any Major Leaguer this season.
Boston last night posted its 8th comeback win of the season, tied with Oakland, Minnesota and New York for 2nd in the A.L. behind Toronto (10).
Coming into today and since 2007, Kazmir (3.70) and Lester (3.71) rank 5th and 6th respectively among A.L. left-handers in ERA (min. 300 IP).
