What’s the number 1 rule of Fight Club? Don’t talk about Fight Club.

What’s the second rule of Fight Club? Don’t talk about Fight Club.

Let’s apply these same rules to last night’s Boston Red Sox game and just not talk about it here today. They sucked last night, end of story.

For more slices of Boston Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Hartford Courant and Providence Journal websites.

And if you must see what the enemy papers are saying you can check out the Tampa Tribune and St. Petersburg Times websites.

Home games in BOLD. All times are Eastern.

2009 Boston Red Sox Spring Training Schedule.

SS – split squad games

For the first time since 2002, the Boston Red Sox will open up their season at Fenway Park when the Tampa Bay Rays come to town for a 3-game set starting April 6th, 2009. After they play the Rays, they immediately head to the west coast for a 6-game road trip.

The Red Sox will play their AL East division foes 18 times during the season and will be playing the National League East in interleague play, including the Atlanta Braves in 2 different series.

The Red Sox first trip to the new Yankee Stadium will be a 2-game set on May 4th and 5th.

The Red Sox will end their season at home in 2009 for the 5th straight year. Times for all games have not been announced yet.

For a full look at the schedule, head over to redsox.com.

Monday night it was the Tampa Bay Rays who were given the “Flop at the Trop” moniker after the Boston Red Sox pounded them. Tonight it was the Rays who returned the favor as they killed the knuckleball of Tim Wakefield to beat the Red Sox 10-3 in front of 36,048 at Tropicana Field.

The win for the Rays moves them to 2 games ahead of the Red Sox for first place in the AL East and all but assures them of their first ever playoff spot.

Tim Wakefield was brutal tonight giving up 6 runs in 2 1/3 innings.

Wakefield just didn’t have it tonight against a franchise that he has owned over his career. He lasted just 2 1/3 innings giving up 6 runs on 6 hits. He had no walks and struck out 2. Devern Hansack worked 1/3 of an inning allowing 2 runs on a hit and a walk. Javier Lopez didn’t retire anyone as he gave up a hit and walk.

David Aardsma worked 1 1/3 innings with just a hit allowed. Manny Delcarmen struck out 3 and walked 1 in 2 innings while Hideki Okajima struck out 2 in an inning of work. David Pauley allowed 2 runs on 3 hits in 1/3 of an inning and Chris Smith got the final two outs.

David Ortiz was the Red Sox offense as he drove in all 3 runs on 2 home runs. Jacoby Ellsbury went 2-for-4 while Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis had the other hits in the losing effort.

Things started out nicely for the Red Sox in the top of the 1st against Rays starter Matt Garza.

Ellsbury led off the inning with a single and after a Pedroia fly out, Big Papi gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead with a monstrous blast that never came down as it got stuck in the last catwalk out in left center.

Akinori Iwamura got things started for the Rays in the 1st with a single. He then stole second and went to third on a Jason Bartlett single.  Carlos Peña knocked him in with a sacrifice fly to cut the Red Sox lead to 2-1. Wakefield got the second out of the inning when Evan Longoria flew out. With Wily Aybar at the dish, Bartlett stole second but it wouldn’t matter as Aybar crushed a Wakefield knuckleball to put the Rays up 3-2.

Wakefield started the 2nd inning with a strikeout of Justin Ruggiano. Gabe Gross and Fernando Perez followed with back-to-back home runs to push the lead to 5-2.

In the 3rd inning the game seemingly got away from the Red Sox.

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Tim Wakefield looks to help the Red Sox leave Tampa tied for 1st.

Sorry folks for the lack of posting today. I’ve had a wicked pissah of headache that was so bad it hurt to look at the computer screen.  I’ll be playing catchup on the day’s events during the evening so please bear with me.

The Boston Red Sox will be playing the Tampa Bay Rays for the final time in the regular season tonight with a chance to leave Tampa tied for 1st place or 2 games behind in the AL East. The Red Sox do have the right guy on the mound though in Tim Wakefield.

Wakefield has owned the Rays in his career as evidenced by his 19-4 record with a 3.10 ERA in 40 appearances (30 starts). His record at Tropicana Field is 9-2 with a 2.45 ERA in 22 games (16 starts). Wakefield has faced the Rays twice this season and is 0-1 with a 2.77 ERA. The last time out against the Rays, he took a 3-1 loss against tonight’s Rays starter Matt Garza.

Garza will be making his 4th start of this season against the Red Sox and 6th overall in his career. He is 1-1 with a 4.15 ERA this season and is 3-1 with a 3.54 ERA lifetime.

Curt Schilling blasted Manny Ramirez today in his appearance on WEEI today.

The Red Sox plan to consult hip specialists about Mike Lowell’s hip. Lowell also talked about his ailing hip before the game today.

Michael Berger of WEEI takes another look at the Red Sox in one-run games.

Alex Speier of WEEI looks at the weird magic number logic of Joe Maddon.

Lineups and batter/pitcher matchups after the jump.

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After watching the Boston Red Sox lose last night to the Tampa Bay Rays on a walk-off hit, I started thinking about the great pitching performances turned in by both Josh Beckett and Andy Sonnanstine.

For us as Red Sox fans, last night we saw the vintage Beckett. The one who goes out and totally dominates the other team’s hitters and usually comes out on top. This is the Beckett who we saw last year in the playoffs making hitters looked like they didn’t belong.

Now ponder this question for a second. How many pitchers in the American League can usually match Beckett pitch for pitch in a game? Are you thinking? Seriously think about it for a second.

Okay, now that you’ve thought about the question for a second, let me ask you this. Did you have Sonnanstine on that list? If you did, you must be a Rays fan or see what the Rays saw in him when they drafted him.

Both Beckett and Sonnanstine matched up last Wednesday in the game won by the Rays in extra innings at Fenway Park. If you remember that game, it was like turning on the DVR replay and watching it again last night. During the game last week, both pitchers were in control, very few mistakes.

Now clear your head of last week’s game and think about last night. It was the same thing. They both were in control, a mistake here and there but both left giving their team a chance to win.

That’s all you can ask of your starting pitcher each time he goes out on the mound. You want him to compete and give your ballclub a chance to win. We hear this all the time from Red Sox skipper Terry Francona and he’s right. Pitch like both of them did last night and your team will have that chance to win.

The good news out of the start for the Red Sox is the fact that Beckett is being Beckett again. It was his third start back from the disabled list and he was able to go 8 innings only throwing 95 pitches. Had it not been his third start back from the DL, he probably would have come back out to pitch the 9th inning.

Oh and by the way, another reason Beckett is back, the cussing is back and back with a vengeance. I’d have to say he used the mother f word at least 5 times in the game along with a few others. In the postgame press conference, he called Carlos Peña a strong SOB for hitting that pitch the opposite way for the only blemish on Beckett’s line last night. And of course there’s this.

“That’s for you guys and people up in Boston to worry about that (expletive) right now. We’re worried about winning tomorrow. It’s like that (expletive) on TV, Mission Soxtober. We’re in September right now. I’m not worried about October.”

Now that’s the vintage Beckett we all know and love. Right Texy? Those (expletive) Mission Soxtober videos can be seen here and here. And I’m sure that we will have another one at some point today.

Links from the Tampa and local media after the jump.

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Dioner Navarro’s walk-off single in the 9th inning off of Justin Masterson gave the Tampa Bay Rays a 2-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in front of 32,079. The win puts the Rays back in sole possession of first place in the AL East.

Dioner Navarro raises his arms after his game-winning RBI.

Justin Masterson took over for Josh Beckett to start the bottom of the 9th inning and allowed a leadoff single to Jason Bartlett. With the count 1-1 to Carlos Peña and got strike 2 or so we thought. A ball had come into the field of play from the Red Sox bullpen and the third base umpire called time. Peña ended up walking and Masterson then struck out Evan Longoria. He proceeded to hit Cliff Floyd on an 0-2 count with a slider that slid too far. With the count 2-2 on Navarro, Masterson threw a fastball that Navarro hit over the head of Coco Crisp who was playing shallow to drive in Bartlett from third to give the Rays win.

It was almost carbon copy like performance from last Wednesday’s game from Beckett and Andy Sonnanstine. Both starters kept each team at bay at the plate and gave their teams a chance to win.

Beckett went 8 innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and a walk while fanning 7 on 95 pitches. The only non-economical inning Beckett had with his pitch count was the 5th where he threw 22 pitches. Masterson worked 1/3 of an inning, allowing the run on 2 hits, a walk and a HBP to take the loss.

Jacoby Ellsbury had 2 of the Red Sox 5 hits on the night. Dustin Pedroia, Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie had the others while Kevin Youkilis drove in the only run with a sacrifice fly.

In the 2nd inning, Lowell worked a leadoff walk and after a Mark Kotsay strikeout, Lowrie singled as Lowell would stop at second. The Red Sox couldn’t move the two base runners any further though as Sonnanstine struck out Jason Varitek and Coco to end the inning.

Beckett was awesome all night on the mound and was perfect through 4 1/3 innings.

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