The last time that Scott Kazmir faced the Boston Red Sox, he staked his team to a big lead. Tonight was no different as he gave them 6 strong innings and the bullpen held the lead for him as the Tampa Bay Rays went on to win 7-2 in front of 37,552 cold fans at Fenway Park.
Jon Lester wasn’t great for the Red Sox in his first start of the season although home plate umpire Bob Davidson wasn’t doing him any favors. Lester allowed 5 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5.
Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez both worked perfect innings with Ramirez adding a strikeout. Takashi Saito made his Red Sox debut and gave up a run on a hit. Javier Lopez worked the 9th allowing a run on a 4 hits.
Kazmir gave up 1 run in 6 innings on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.
Kevin Youkilis was the man at the plate for the Red Sox going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Jason Bay had the other RBI for the Red Sox and added a double while Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Rocco Baldelli had the other hits.
Lester worked around an Evan Longoria double in the 1st and he struck out the side in the 2nd inning. It was the 3rd inning when things started to go south.
Akinori Iwamura led off with a double and then Jason Bartlett reached on an infield single with Iwamura holding put at second. Carl Crawford followed with a shot between first and second that was gloved by Youkilis but his throw to second went into the outfield and allowed Iwamura to score to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. That would be all the damage though as Lester got Longoria to ground into a double play and Carlos Peña to ground out to second, his first out that wasn’t a strikeout (struck out in 1st).
Ellsbury popped out to start the bottom half of the inning and the reigning AL MVP followed with a double. Kazmir got the second out with a strikeout of Big Papi but Youk singled in Pedroia to tie the game at 1. Youk was thrown out trying to get back to the bag when Peña cut off the throw.
Former Red Sox outfielder and minor league manager Gabe Kapler worked a walk to start the 5th and went to third on a Iwamura single. Bartlett then laid down a safety squeeze that Lester could only weakly throw to Jason Varitek as Kapler crossed the plate to make it 2-1 Rays. Crawford followed with a single to load up the bases for Longoria who ended up grounding into a double play that saw Iwamura score. Peña then finally came through with first hit of the season and it was a big one as he crushed a Lester offering for a 2-run homer to center making it 5-1 Rays.
Longoria pushed the lead to 6-1 when he led off the 8th with a solo home run off of Saito.
The Red Sox had a chance to tie the game up in bottom of the 8th but only came out of the inning with a run.
J.P. Howell started the inning with a strikeout of Pedroia and then allowed back-to-back singles by Big Papi and Youk. Howell struck out his former teammate Baldelli for the second out but a Bay double knocked in Papi to make it 6-2. Howell then hit Mike Lowell in the elbow to load up the bases for Jed Lowrie. Grant Balfour took over for Howell and struck out Lowrie to end the threat.
The Rays would add an insurance run off of Lopez in the 9th and Balfour sent the local nine down in order in the 9th to preserve the win for the Rays.
These same two teams are back at it again at 1:35 PM in the rubber match of this three game series. Daisuke Matsuzaka starts for the Red Sox and will be opposed by Matt Garza.
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