For whatever reason, the Boston Red Sox have not had much luck against the Tampa Bay Rays over the last year or so. Tonight, it looked like it was going that way until another big 6th inning for the Red Sox.

Jason Bay once again worked his magic as he hit a 3-run home run and J.D. Drew hit a 2-run game-winning homer in the decisive 6th inning to help the Red Sox to a 7-3 win over Rays in front of 37,745 fans at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox had lost 5 of their last 6 games against the Rays but with the win over their thorn, they improve to 19-11 on the season in their second straight win. With the loss, the Rays drop to 14-17 and ended a 3-game winning streak which was their longest of the season.

Brad Penny got the start for the Red Sox and didn’t pitch great although he wasn’t completely terrible early. All 3 runs he gave up came in the first 4 innings. He ended up going 6 1/3 innings, allowing the 3 runs on 8 hits and2 walks while striking out 2.

Hideki Okajima came in and worked an inning, walking one and striking out 1. Ramon Ramirez went 2/3 of an inning. Jonathan Papelbon finished it off in the 9th with two strikeouts after giving up a leadoff single.

James Shields had some early success during the game, giving up 5 hits but getting out of any trouble each time. But in the 6th he came unglued when he gave up two home runs, one to Bay and the other to J.D. Drew.  Shields ended up going 6 innings, allowing 5 runs on 10 hits and a walk while striking out 7 batters. Grant Balfour went the final two innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits.

Every member of the starting nine for the Red Sox had a hit on the night with the exception of David Ortiz. Dustin Pedroia was a hitting machine for the local nine tonight as he went 4-for-5 with an RBI. Mike Lowell had another stellar night at the plate with 3 hits while Bay had 2 hits, including the decisive 3-run homer. Jacoby Ellsbury added 2 hits and an RBI and Drew’s only hit of the night was a 2-run homer.

The Rays wasted no time against Penny tonight.

After B.J. Upton grounded out, Carl Crawford continued his mastery of Penny and the Red Sox with a single, the first of his 3 hits on the evening. With Evan Longoira at the plate, he stole second before Longoria worked walk. Penny got Carlos Peña to strike out but Pat Burrell followed with a single to center to score Crawford to put the Rays up 1-0.

With two outs in the 2nd inning, Jeff Bailey crushed a triple to deep center but was stranded there when Shields got Jason Varitek to ground out to first.

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After a record-breaking and record-setting 6th inning last night that saw them put up a 12 spot before making an out against the Cleveland Indians, the Boston Red Sox will now have to deal with the thorn in their side that is the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays have taken 5-of-7 games from the Red Sox this season, including 2-of-3 at Fenway Park.

Tonight’s game will start at 7:10 PM and with the Boston Bruins playing tonight in Game 4 of their NHL Playoffs matchup, the Red Sox game has been relegated to the NESN Plus channel in the Red Sox television market. The Red Sox pregame show will start at 5:30 PM and run until 7 on NESN. The game will be shown on FOX Sports Florida in the Rays television market. And if the television isn’t your cup of tea, you can catch the game on one of the many affiliates of the Red Sox Radio Network.

Brad Penny will make the his second consecutive start against the Rays and looked pretty strong the last time out despite taking the loss. In that outing, he struck out 8 in six innings of work. On the season, Penny is 2-1 with a 7.61 ERA. In his 5 games (4 starts) against the Rays in his career, Penny is 1-3 with a 5.26 ERA.

Joe Maddon will call upon “Big Game” James Shields,who is making his 3rd start against the Red Sox and second consecutive start, tonight and he’ll look to exercise his demons at Fenway Park. In 4 starts at the Fens, Shields is 0-4 with a 9.56 ERA. Overall in his career, Shields is 3-5 with a 5.17 ERA against the Red Sox. He is 1-1 this year against the Red Sox and his overall record this season is 3-2 with a 3.51 ERA.

Ask Amalie 5.8.09 [Boston Globe]

Red Sox honor Dom DiMaggio [Extra Bases]

Family: DiMaggio was watching his beloved Sox when he died [Extra Bases]

About that current leftfielder … [Extra Bases]

Honoring No. 7 [Projo Sox Blog]

Pesky remembers his pal ‘Dommie’ [Boston Herald]

Curt Schilling talks about Mannywood With Dennis & Callahan (link is to audio clip) [WEEI.com]

Who should man the booth till Rem Dawg returns? [NESN.com]

Opposing Thoughts: Sox are no puzzle for Rays [NESN.com]

That One Inning [Center Field]

If you missed the chat with Jed Hoyer over at Sawxheads, be sure to check it out.

Here are tonight’s starting lineups:

And here is how the hitters have fared against tonight’s starting pitchers:

According to a report by Maureen Mullen of the Daily Item via Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe,  Boston Red Sox pitcher John Smoltz visited Dr. James Andrews after suffering a setback on his surgically-repaired right shoulder.

“I don’t know what that (the setback) was,” Smoltz told The Item. “I was going really fast, not faster than normal, but fast in a pace that I was exceedingly achieving each goal. And maybe there for a little bit it was my body’s way of saying slow down a little bit. It almost was supposed to happen earlier, based on protocol. It just happened a little later.”

Smoltz hadn’t visited Andrews since joining the Red Sox, but said about the peace of mind, “I needed that part. Everyone needs that part. This is new for me. I could say that if I had an elbow surgery tomorrow, that I would know how to come back from that a lot greater than I would a shoulder surgery. But the ability to come back is not a foreign process. It’s just something that takes a lot of mind over matter. There’s no easy process and there’s no formula that’s perfect for everybody.”

No one ever wants to hear those three words (Dr. James Andrews) but it’s good to hear that nothing is structurally wrong with the right shoulder of Smoltz. We can definitely use him and the experience he brings as the Red Sox make another run towards another World Series title.

Smoltz gets peace of mind with visit to doctor [Daily Item]

Report: Smoltz visited Dr. Andrews [Extra Bases]

The Boston Red Sox used a record breaking and record tying 12 run 6th inning to propel themselves past the Cleveland Indians 13-3 last night to gain a split of the brief 2-game set.

But the news of the day wasn’t about the Red Sox record inning. Instead it was about the 50-game suspension of former Red Sox and current Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez for the use of performance-enhancing drugs.

It turns out the drug of choice for Manny was a sexual enhancer called gonadotropin which can be used on males with fertility problems. It also used to promote to restart the production of testosterone in anabolic steroid users.

Does this mean Manny was a steroid user? No, it doesn’t but it sure makes him look guilty even though he says it was for a personal medical problem. Ramirez failed two drug tests, one during in spring training and a subsequent follow up that triggered the suspension.

Now the question remains, was Manny’s Red Sox career tainted? And were the two Red Sox World Series titles tainted because of this? Personally, if Manny is telling the truth then no they aren’t tainted. Since he’s passed drug tests in the past, there would be no reason to suspect Manny was ever using performance-enhancing drugs.

The best thing for Manny to do right now is be completely honest with everyone because the witch hunt has already begun. It only took a matter of hours for the media to find out what the drug of choice was. Imagine what a little more time would do.

It is disheartening to know though that one of your all-time favorite baseball players was a performance-enhancing drug user. But unless anything damaging comes out, he’ll still be one of my favorites. And if nothing else does come out, it will be interesting to see what happens to Manny when the Hall of Fame vote comes out because he is/was a sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer.

Before we get to today’s links from the local media, just a quick reminder. With the Boston Bruins playing tonight in Game 4 of their NHL Playoffs matchup, the Red Sox game has been relegated to the NESN Plus channel. The Red Sox pregame show will start at 5:30 PM and run until 7 on NESN.

And one other quick thing, Red Sox assistant GM Jed Hoyer will be holding a chat with the fans at 12:30 PM over at Sawxheads.

Links coming up after the jump.

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UConn Football links

Donald Brown to Throw Out First Pitch at May 12th BlueClaws Game [OurSports Central]

Emerging stars from the spring in the Big East [Big East Blog – ESPN]

UConn Women’s Basketball links

Faris, Walker headed to trials [Jim Fuller – New Haven Register Blog]

USA Basketball U-19 invitees announced [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant Blog]

Who will it be? [John Altavilla – Hartford Courant Blog]

Walker To Join Faris, Stevens at U-19 Trials [Rich Elliott Blog – Connecticut Post]

Several from UConn up for spots on U.S. team [New Haven Register]

Geno Picks Up More Hardware [Hartford Courant]

UConn Men’s Basketball links

Jim Calhoun at Mystic Aquarium [Mike Anthony Blog – Hartford Courant]

Into the Mystic [David Borges Blog – New Haven Register]

Calhoun addresses review, Majok [New Haven Register]

Calhoun Gives Team Update In Mystic Appearance [Hartford Courant]

Other UConn related links

We’ve Got Graz [Thoughts From a Fat White Guy]

Softball: UConn Falls 4-0 To No. 17/18 Louisville In The Quarterfinal Round Of The BIG EAST Tournament [UConnHuskies.com]