Red Sox News & Notes – 9/26

Jeff Keppinger #7 of the Tampa Bay Rays watches the ball after hitting a three-run home run in the second inning against the Boston Red Sox during the game on September 25, 2012 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

Even if you took away the bad second inning from Clay Buchholz last night, it’s highly unlikely that the Boston Red Sox would have beaten the Tampa Bay Rays. David Price was just that good.

The Rays got three in that fateful second inning on their way to a 5-2 win over the local nine to keep their playoff dream alive and well.

With both the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles losing last night, the Rays are 3.5 games of the Orioles and five games behind the Yankees in the AL East. But with the Oakland Athletics winning, the Rays remain three games behind them for the final AL Wild Card spot.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox are a 1/2 game ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays for last place in the AL East. Since moving to a five team AL East in 1994, the Red Sox have never finished in the basement.

Buchholz had an easy time of things in the first inning only to walk the first two batters he faced in the second. Then he left a fastball out over the plate that Jeff Keppinger blasted into the Green Monster seats and just like that the Red Sox trailed 3-0.

Price was good last night, no he was great. He ended up striking out 13 Red Sox batters on the night in a complete game effort. He got Mauro Gomez three times and got Pedro Ciriaco, Daniel Nava, Ryan Lavarnway and Jose Iglesias twice. In fact, the only member of the starting nine for the Red Sox not to strike out was Dustin Pedroia.

As great as Price was the Red Sox did have their opportunities. But a baserunning blunder in the second inning shut down a rally.

Cody Ross had led off the inning with a single and then went to third base on a Gomez wall ball single. After a Lavarnway flyout to short right, Danny Valencia hit one in the gap that scored Ross. But Valencia got over zealous with a big wide turn and was gunned down going back to first base. Price left Gomez stranded at third base when Che-Hsuan Lin grounded out.

Baserunning cost the Red Sox again in the third inning when Ciriaco was thrown out for just the second time this season stealing third base. It proved costly because Pedroia doubled Nava over to third. The Red Sox would score when Price balked in Nava. But Price once again escaped any further damage as he got a big strikeout of Ross.

From that point forward, the Red Sox had two batters reach base; a Pedroia single in the 6th and Valencia in the 8th on a throwing error by Ben Zobrist.

Tonight will mark the final home game of the 2012 season for the Red Sox. They’ll honor the All-Fenway Team for the 100th Anniversary before the game. Then after the game they’ll embark on a six-game road trip where they hope to play spoiler with the Orioles and Yankees.

And with tonight being the last home game, we can only hope and pray that this is the last game Bobby Valentine ever manages in a Red Sox uniform at the Fens. If he’s back next year, I’d be shocked.

We’ll be back later today with today’s lineups, batter/pitcher matchups and links from the day. So for now, let’s take at look at the overnight links from the media by clicking on the read more button below if you’re on the home page.

To open the links up in a new tab or window, use Control+click

Fenway proves a home wrecker [boston herald]

Memories of ’04 Red Sox magic evoked [boston herald]

David Price turns tables [boston herald]

Source: Varitek ‘close’ to role with Sox [rob bradford – weei.com]

The importance of uncovering the old Jon Lester [rob bradford – weei.com]

Price goes distance as Rays spoil Sox party, 5-2 [csn new england]

It could be a Field of Dreams again [csn new england]

Martinez, Millar among ’04 Sox honored at Fenway [csn new england]

After another loss, all Buchholz can do is look towards 2013 [csn new england]

Baserunning gaffes hurt Red Sox [csn new england]

Doubront hopes to learn from Pedro [espn boston]