Last night on Twitter, I said it wasn’t any fun watching the Boston Red Sox play beisbol since the games don’t mean anything for them. Lest I forget though, that they can spoiler as their schedule for the rest of the season is against their division rivals who are going for a playoff spot.
First up last night was the Tampa Bay Rays who are quickly sliding out out of contention and the Red Sox helped that last night. Behind Jacoby Ellsbury‘s 3 RBI night and decent starting pitching for the first time in a while, the Red Sox beat the Rays 5-2 to push them further down in the race.
The Rays are now 5.5 games out of first in the AL East and five games behind the Baltimore Orioles for the second wild card spot. The Orioles are just a 1/2 behind the New York Yankees for first in the AL East. The Orioles are 1.5 games behind the Oakland A’s for the top wild card spot. That battle is important to watch because the top wild card team gets home field advantage.
Aaron Cook started this one and pitched better than he has in the past. When he did get in trouble, he was able to get out of it.
In the 5th inning, Luke Scott and Carlos Pena reached on singles sandwiched around a Jeff Keppinger lineout. The Rays then put down a safety squeeze to bring in Scott for the first run of the game as James Loney‘s throw to Ryan Lavarnway was too late. The Rays then attempted a double steal but Lavarnway nailed Pena at third base. After a walk to Jose Molina, Cook got Desmond Jennings to ground into a fielder’s choice.
Ellsbury got the Red Sox on the board in the 6th though with a two-run homer, his fourth of the season. The Red Sox would add three more runs in the 7th off of four Rays pitchers. Two of them came on a Mauro Gomez pinch-hit single with Ellsbury adding another RBI with a single.
Like I said, it’s not fun watching them right now. But if they can continue to look good enough and play spoiler, they might be worth watching a little. The Rays were the beneficiary of what happened last year so it’d be nice to see them knocked out.
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.
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Jacoby Ellsbury blasts Cobb’s no-hit bid [boston herald]
The Maddon way works [boston herald]
Jose Iglesias at-bats under scrutiny [boston herald]
Daniel Bard not up to speed [boston herald]
Maddon surprised Crawford didn’t work out [rob bradford – weei.com]
Bogar to interview for Astros’ position [rob bradford – weei.com]
An Astros reminder: Don’t forget about Tim Bogar [rob bradford – weei.com]
Why it matters that Bobby Valentine lifted Jose Iglesias mid-at-bat [clubhouse insider]
Who’s the Red Sox’ best pitcher? Re-introducing Junichi Tazawa [clubhouse insider]
Valentine has high praise for Miller [csn new england]
Red Sox turn it on late, beat Rays, 5-2 [csn new england]
State of the Sox Notebook: September 17, 2012 [csn new england]
Cook, Ellsbury enjoy rare night of production [csn new england]
Rapid Reaction: Red Sox 5, Rays 2 [espn boston]
Ellsbury happy to make Rays pay [espn boston]
Tazawa continues to impress [extra bases]
One day later, a look at how Jose Iglesias can avoid being replaced by a pinch-hitter [full count]
Tazawa continues run of dominance [projo sox blog]
Struggling at plate, Iglesias feels he’s turned corner [redsox.com]
Miller hitting his stride as full-time reliever [redsox.com]
Lavarnway has potential to hit well in Majors [redsox.com]
Pesky’s son: Funeral attendance no issue [alex speier – weei.com]
For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CSN New England, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal, RedSox.com and WEEI websites.
And if you must check out the enemy news, head over to the Tampa Bay Times and Tampa Tribune websites.
Follow Ian on Twitter @soxanddawgs. And be sure to like us on Facebook as well.
photo credit: getty images
Tessier, a 5-9, 177-pound third-year pro, appeared in 75 games with the Whale last season, notching 12 goals and 18 assists for 30 points, along with 20 penalty minutes and a +3 rating. He also scored one goal and added four assists for five points in nine playoff games, which was good for a tie for second on the Whale team in assists and third in points.
Smallwood earned Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second time in three weeks and had a game-high 14 tackles vs. the Terps — five more than any other player in the game . He had 2.5 sacks, 3.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble that led to a Connecticut field goal. Smallwood leads all FBS players in tackles for loss (3.0 per game) and is eighth nationally in sacks (1.3 per game).
66-81
78-68
Pedro Ciriaco