Home boys: Sox K.O. Rays for 11th straight home win

Sox 7, Rays 4
WP: Masterson (2-0)
LP: Garza (4-2)
SV: Papelbon (17)
HRs: BOS-Lowell (8), Drew (6); TB-Iwamura (4), Pena (11)

SUMMARY:
The two teams atop the AL East waged a back-and-forth battle for six innings before Boston finally pulled away with a four-run sixth. Justin Masterson pitched well enough to earn the win as Mike Lowell, JD Drew and Coco Crisp provided the big hits necessary to help the Sox climb within a half game of the Rays.

SUPERSTAR: Drew 2-3, 2R, BI, BB, 2B, HR
Not only did the rundown rightfielder contribute mightily at the plate, he also made two spectacular catches in the field to prevent runs and keep the score close.

Imagine what he could do if played every day - he might just make this list more than once a season.

THE BIGGEST LOSER: Garza 5.1IP, 6H, 7R, 5ER, 2BB, 3K, 2HR, 96P
Not only did the randy righty implode on the mound when he allowed four runs in the sixth inning, he exploded as well by cursing at himself & others, slamming the resin bag down and generally acting like a Little Leaguer with a hair trigger during the fatal frame.

RECAP:
So far the season series with the Rays has been a microcosm of the Sox season as a whole.

They win at home, they lose on the road.

Boston ran its record against the Rays in '08 to 4-3 with the win tonight, and yup, you guessed it, all four wins have come at Fenway while the three L's came at the fabulous, soon to be extinct Trop.

By winning its 11th consecutive home game Boston moved to an ML-best 22-5 at Fenway and while the three wins in Baltimore made its road record a bit more respectable, 14-20 is not exactly a mark that makes you start printing playoff tickets.

Regardless of the venue the win tonight was huge for the Sox on many levels:

-Justin Masterson, despite allowing a homer on his first pitch of the night, hung in for the win in what was the least impressive of his three major league starts to date

-the Sox slugged two key homers and had four extra base hits out of their seven in their first game at home since David Ortiz was placed on the DL

-both Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen had solid outings in setting up Jonathan Papelbon for the save

-Boston is now one beautiful effort by Josh Beckett away from reclaiming first place in the East for the first time since May 25th

If that isn't enough to ensure huge ratings for tomorrow night's clash of the titans on ESPN I don't know what will.

As i said this game was worthy of two clubs battling for first place as the Rays and Sox took turns trading leads before Boston finally grabbed the last lead of the night in the sixth.

It all started when Masterson (6IP, 6H, 4ER, 2BB, 5K, 2HR, 91P) allowed a leadoff home run to pesky Akinori Iwamura on the first pitch of the game, a ball that barely cleared the Monster in left but was ruled a homer without the benefit of replay.

When the rookie hit Carlos Pena with a pitch two batters later, it didn't take a genius to realize this wasn't the same masterful Masterson we had seen in his two previous outings.

Luckily for Boston Matt Garza, who had been rock solid lately in allowing just 2 runs and 8 hits in 15.1 innings while posting two straight wins, was as shaky as the rookie, and when Manny Ramirez led off the second with a single and Mike Lowell blasted a 2-run shot over the Wall, you got the feeling it was gonna be one of those nights.

The Sox missed a golden opportunity to add to the lead in the third when Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a walk, stole second (of course) for his league leading 28th theft, and Dustin Pedroia was hit by a pitch to set up a first and second, no outs situation.

But Youk skied to shallow left and ManRam (1-4, 2R) bounced into a double play, and that threat was gone by the wayside.

Like last night's game in Baltimore the Rays made the Sox pay for the failure immediately after when BJ Upton and Pena hit back-to-back booming doubles to start the third to tie the game at two, and if it wasn't for the glove of JD Drew it could have been a lot worse.

On the next pitch following Pena's ground rule double to the right field seats Rays rookie third baseman Evan Longoria launched a deep, slicing drive to the same corner, but Drew hopped on his horse and tracked the ball down near the wall for an inning-saving out, and Masterson retired the next two batters to escape the inning with the game tied.

As so often is the case in baseball Drew contributed a great offensive play in the next inning when he turned on the first pitch he saw from Garza and deposited it deep into the right field seats to give Boston a 3-2 lead.

You're serve, Tampa Bay.

Neither team scored in the fifth but the Rays returned the serve in the top of the sixth when Upton (2-5, 2R) singled through the infield to right and Pena followed with a towering blast that nearly brought rain and ended up in the bullpen to give Tampa Bay the lead back at 4-3.

The the game, and Garza, fell apart in the bottom of the sixth as the Sox would not only return the serve but slam it down the Rays throats, making sure there would be no more see-sawing for the rest of the night.

It all stated to unravel when Garza hit Youk in the forearm on an 0-1 count, and as the pitcher cursed and called his catcher to the mound you could see something was wrong with the fiery youngster.

If he was mad at himself after that mistake he must have been furious when his former Twins teammate, shortstop Jason Bartlett, booted a grounder by Ramirez, and after Lowell fouled out, Garza walked Drew on a couple of close pitches to load the bases, and it felt like all hell was about to break loose.

It did.

Captain Tek hit a sharp single up the middle to score Youk and tie the game (again) at four, and then Coco Crisp, who just ended a horrific 0-23 slump last night, stepped in with a chance to break the game open.

(*Side note - actual exchange between my son and I at this point: Drew: "Oh great, Coco's up!?" Dad-" he just broke a long slump last night, he's due for a big hit")

Like I actually know what i'm talking about Crisp proceeded to carve a 1-0 pitch from Garza down the leftfield line for a 2-run double, and just like that the game was all but over.

Ellsbury added a sac fly off Grant Balfour as Garza was shredding something in the dugout to give us the final margin of 7-4, and after that it was up to the Sox pen to bring the win home.

Amazingly they did just that. Manny D tossed a scoreless, hitless seventh, and after Javier lefty Lopez walked one and allowed a hit to his two batters, Hansen came on and retired Carl Crawford, Gabe Gross and Bartlett to send the game to the closer.

Papelbon wasted no time in setting the side down in order in the 9th, needing just 12 pitches to record two Ks and a groundout, and when Upton went down swinging to end the game Boston was one step closer to reclaiming first place and had its first game in the win column since Big Papi went on the DL.

If only they could play every game at home, life would be so much easier.


RECORD: 36-25
AL EAST: 1/2 GB
STREAK: W1
LAST 10: 5-5
UP NEXT: Wed vs. TB 705 ESPN Jackson vs. Beckett