Rays of hope: Sox hang on for tough win at the Trop

Sox 8 , Tampa Bay 6
WP: Lester (2-0)
LP: Sonnanstine (2-9)
SV: Papelbon (30)
HRs: TB-Iwamura (4), Pena (28)

SUMMARY
Boston jumped out to a sizable 7-2 lead after four innings but even though the randy Rays clawed back with four runs in three innings to make the game a lot closer than it should have been, starter Jon Lester still earned his second win of the season.

#1 STUNNER Big Papi 2-4, 2R, BI, BB, 3B
The big fella's 1st triple of the season and 12th of his career drove in the first run of the game, and for an encore he legged out a 60-ft single to ignite a five-run rally in the 4th.

PAN's FAUN Andy Sonnanstine 5IP, 8H, 7ER, 0BB, 5K
What a difference a week makes. Last Wednesday at Fenway the youngster dazzled the Sox hitters, taking a shutout into the 7th inning and earning his 2nd win of the season. Tonight? They beat him like he was a Devil Ray pitcher.

RECAP
It wan't easy.

And it sure wasn't pretty.

Did I mention it wasn't easy?

Either way Boston did what it set out to do tonight: defeat the Rays and get one step closer to a much-needed sweep of an inferior team to boost confidence before battling the Bummers in the Bronx one week from tonight.

Who cares that Boston pitchers only surrendered 4 hits for the second straight night and could have lost the game?

Who cares if the normally patient Boston batters worked just one walk off the usually obliging Rays staff?

And who cares if Jon Lester was more erratic than an episode of Entourage?

The only thing that matters when you play scrub teams is that you beat scrub teams, and although this one won't be going into any 'Best of 2007' DVDs, Boston will take the victory nonetheless.

The way the game started it looked like tonight might be a carbon copy of last night's 6-0 shellacking.

For the second night in a row Boston put up a pair of runs in the very first frame, but this time the offense was decidedly of the unconventional variety.

After Dustin Pedroia struck out to open the game, Kevin Youkilis drove a ball to deep left center field that would have been a sure-fire triple for a speedier man but instead wound up as a stand up double.

But whadda ya know, the next batter in the Boston lineup would have to show the slow-footed Youk how it's done.

David Ortiz stepped in the box after sitting out the game yesterday with 11 career triples under his belt, the last one coming Sept. 8th of last year at home against the Royals.

After running the count to 2-1, Papi fouled off three straight pitches before unloading on a Sonnanstine offering, muscling the ball the other way into the left center field gap between outfielders Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton and all the way to the wall.

By the time Youk had rumbled around to score the first run of the game, Papi was heading to third with his first three bagger of the season, and when the winded Ortiz got up to catch his breath you knew he was thinking "that's how you do it, slow poke."

Manny would add to Papi's shortness of breath when his medium-depth fly ball to center was just deep enough to bring the exhausted Ortiz home, and, thanks to Upton's terrible throw, without a slide, and just like yesterday Boston owned a demoralizing 2-0 lead after one.

Morale would quickly be boosted on the home bench when Upton, who celebrated his 23rd birthday today, drew a 1-out walk from Lester (5.1IP, 4H, 5ER, 4BB, 4K, 2HR) and then cruised home when ex-Sox Carlos Pena blasted the next pitch over the right field wall for a game-tying two-run blast.

It was Pena's 28th homer run, a career-high, and I don't think I need to point out to anyone that his total would lead the team by seven homers, and he was a member of the squad for 18 games last season.

Moving on, Boston would put some distance between them and the Rays on the scoreboard when it put up five runs on five hits in the fifth.

Papi was a key contributor to this rally, too, but this time it was an accidental nubber that never made it past the pitcher's mound for an infield single, and just like that the man had hit the longest and shortest hit a player could possible get in one game.

Sonnanstine went on to retire Manny swinging at strike three, but then the kid hit Mike Lowell (1-3, R) with a pitch and when J.D, Drew followed with a soft single to right, the bases were loaded and Boston was poised to break the game open.

Tek's lazy RBI single over the shortstops's glove didn't exactly blow the game open, but when Coco Crisp lined a double down the first base line to score two, and then Julio Lugo stroked a slow roller to left center that turned into a 2-RBI double, suddenly the Sox were up 7-2 and it looked like the D-Rays faithful had another reason to head home early.

Not so fast, fairweather.

Lester had settled down after Pena's bomb in the first, retiring 10 Rays in a row counting Aki Iwamura, who was picked off trying to steal second in the 3rd, and it looked like if he could just get through the 6th, Tito was ready to have his bullpen take over.

Except Lester got into trouble in the 5th when he gave up a one-out single to Jonny Gomes and then walked Josh Wilson, but when induced a fielder's choice and ran the count to 3-2 against Iwamura, Lester was just one pitch away from escaping the jam.

Then Aki sent the next pitch the other way, and as Manny ranged over to the fence to try and corral the drive, the ball landed in the first row of seats for a momentum-killing 3-run homer, and the easy victory just got a whole lot harder.

The teams would trade unearned runs in the 7th when Manny's hard shot to short was bobbled by Wilson to score Pedroia, who had doubled, from third, and the Rays got a gift when Pedroia fumbled a Carl Crawford bullet that plated Wilson, who was a victim of a HBP by Manny Delcarmen earlier in the inning.

With the score now 8-6 Tito relied on Hideki Okajima, who relieved Delcarmen in the 7th, and not Eric Gagme to get through the 8th, but after walking Pena and the getting the next two batters, Francona was forced to go with his horse for the 4-out save.

Papelbon fanned Gomes on four pitches to end the 8th, then breezed through a 1-2-3 9th to put this one in the can, and Jon Lester had earned his first victory since July 23rd while posting numbers only a Devil Ray could love.

Like I said it wasn't easy and it wasn't pretty, but the Sox have now won 6 of 9 and can build some serious momentum with a win tomorrow before heading off to Chitown for a four-game weekend set with the White Sox.

And with 13-9 Dice-K going up against 3-12 Edwin Jackson, a sweep is all but in the books.