Dan Johnson’s first at-bat in a Tampa Bay Rays uniform was a solo home run off of Jonathan Papelbon and 3 batters they added another run to beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4 in front of 37,573 at Fenway Park.
The win for the Rays increases their lead in the AL East back to 1.5 games over the Red Sox. This was the first win for the Rays at Fenway Park all season (1-7).
Jason Bay's 2-run homer gave the Red Sox a short lived 4-3 lead.
Trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning, Kevin Youkilis worked a 2-out walk off of Dan Wheeler. Jason Bay followed with a screaming liner that just got over the top of the Green Monster to send Fenway into a frenzy as the Red Sox went up 4-3.
Hideki Okajima was coming back to the mound in the 9th but when Tampa Bay’s pinch-hitter Justian Ruggiano was announced, Terry Francona went to the bullpen for his closer. Rays skipper Joe Maddon countered with Johnson who ended up hitting a 96 MPH fastball into the seats in right field to tie the game at 4. Wily Aybar followed with a line out to center and then Fernando Perez nearly gave the Rays the lead as his hit was just short of the top of the wall as he ended up at second. Perez came into score on a Dioner Navarro double to put the Rays up 5-4. Papelbon recovered to get the final two outs of the inning.
Troy Percival came on to try and close the door for the Rays and he walked Mark Kotsay to start the inning. After two failed attempts bunting, Jason Varitek ended up striking out on a called strike 3. David Ortiz got ahead of Percival 3-0 in the count but on a 3-1 fastball flew out to right field. Francona then had Jacoby Ellsbury pinch-run for Kotsay and he ended up stealing second and ending up on third as Navarro’s throw went into the outfield. Percival got Coco Crisp to pop out to second base to end the game.
Daisuke Matsuzaka started the game for the Red Sox and was definitely not at his best tonight. He went 5+ innings, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits and 4 walks while striking out 5. The bullpen sans Papelbon kept the Red Sox in the game as Javier Lopez, Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima combined to work 3 innings of scoreless baseball.
Mike Lowell led the offense with 2 hits, including a solo home run. Coco, Dustin Pedroia, Youk and Bay had the other hits for the Red Sox with Bay’s being huge at the time. Youkilis had the other RBI, his 99th of the year, for the Red Sox.
After Rays starter Scott Kazmir got the first two outs in the 1st, Pedroia laced a single to center and came around to score on Youk’s double to put the Red Sox up 1-0.
Dice-K couldn't work the Houdini magic this time against the Rays.
No Houdini magic for Dice-K in the 3rd inning.
Akinori Iwamura reached on a bunt single and then Dice-K issued back-to-back walks to Ben Zobrist and Carlos Peña. Dice-K then plunked Cliff Floyd to force in a run and tie the game at 1. Aybar followed that with a sacrifice fly to score Zobrist and put the Rays up 2-1.
The Rays made it 3-1 in the 4th on a Gabe Gross infield single and a Jason Bartlett double. Bartlett advanced to third on the throw but was left stranded there by Dice-K.
Kazmir had settled in but Lowell’s 2-out home run in the 4th got the Red Sox to within a run.
Josh Beckett goes tomorrow night for the Red Sox as they will look to get back to .5 games behind the Rays before a day off on Thursday.
Notes and musings:
Rays @ Red Sox 9.9.08 boxscore
Coming into tonight’s action, Kevin Youkilis has reached base safely via a hit, walk, or hbp in each of his last 42 games, matching the longest streak in the major leagues this season.
Jonathan Papelbon earned his 36th save on Monday, one shy of his 2007 career high and the 6th most in club history. It was his 10th save of the season of more than 1.0 inning, the most of any major leaguer closer in 2008. Mariano Rivera ranks 2nd with 8 such saves (Source: Elias Sports Bureau).
Jon Lester recorded his 14th win on Monday, 4th most among NL lefthanders behind Cliff Lee (21) and C.C. Sabathia and Joe Saunders (15 each). Since 1976, a Red Sox southpaw has won as many games only 3 times: Bruce Hurst twice (18 in 1988; 15 in 1987) and David Wells (15 in 2005).
The 3-0 win on Monday was the Red Sox’ 14th shutout of the season, the most in the majors and Boston’s 2nd most in a season in the last 16 years (17 in 2002).
David Aardsma was perfect in his inning of work on a rehab assignment with the Lowell Spinners. He’s expected to be activated tomorrow.
Sox on streaks:
Coco Crisp has an 11-game hitting streak
Jeff Bailey saw his 6-game hitting streak end
Sean Casey has a 4-game hitting streak
Jason Bay has a 5-game hitting streak
David Ortiz saw his 3-game hitting streak end
Kevin Youkilis has a 4-game hitting streak
