Rays take Round 1 despite late Sox rally

Rays 5, Sox 4
WP: Shields (6-5)
LP: Masterson (4-2)
SV: Howell (2)
HRs: BOS-Drew (16); TB-Upton (6), Gross (6)

SUMMARY:
James Shields out dueled a shaky Justin Masterson and Tampa Bay used two big home runs and survived an odd ninth inning to take the first game of this series, increasing its lead over the Sox to a game and a half in the AL East.

#1 STUNNER: Gabe Gross 2-2, R, 2BB, 2BI, HR
Acquired in a late May in a deal with the Brewers the part time right fielder had the biggest hit of his Tampa Bay career when he drove a monstrous two-run blast into the right field seats to give the Rays a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 4th.

THE BIGGEST LOSER: Julio Lugo 0-4
The useless former Ray ended four innings tonight against his former team, the worst coming when he left the tying run stranded at third as he lined out to shortstop to end the game.

Has this loser ever had a big hit in all his time with Boston?

RECAP:
What's worse than being a Sox fan and having to deal with this humbling loss?

Being a Sox fan living in the Tampa Bay area and having to deal with this loss.

For the first time since God created his own personal waiting room down here on the Sun Coast of Florida myself and all the other New England transplants do not own bragging rights over the once feeble legion of Rays followers.

And lemme tell you its a strange feeling indeed.

Everywhere I go everyone's clamoring about the new and improved Rays, and when they find out I'm a Sox fan I receive death stares, boos, hisses and insults not fit to reprint in a family blog.

Which is fine, because being a Boston sports fan I know it's par for the course; we accepted the fact long ago that everyone who's not one of us hates us. No biggie.

But for the better part of this decade we could always fall back on the number one argument stopper when it came time to shut the yahoos up: scoreboard. Now these pesky fucking upstart Rays have taken that hard earned privilege away from us, and if we don't take it back soon things are gonna start getting ugly down here.

Because there's so many members of RSN South here we'll turn this fucking tranquil tropical paradise into a mini Southie if they're not fucking careful.

Sorry, I let myself get carried away a bit there. Let's get back to the game.

To say the night started off poorly for Boston would be a massive understatement.

Tampa Bay starter James Shields retired the side in order in the top of the first on seven measly pitches resulting in three weak grounders, and when the Rays came to bat center fielder BJ Upton, leading off in place of suspended Akinori Iwamura, knocked Justin Masterson's first pitch of the game over the wall in straightaway center for a lightning quick 1-0 Tampa Bay lead.

It would go downhill from there.

While Shields (6.1IP, 5H, 2ER, 1BB, 5K, HR, 104P) was dealing more like he did in his complete game 2-hit shutout against Boston on April 27th than his last two starts against the Sox, where he allowed 11 runs and 13 hits in 4 1/3 innings, Masterson was having a hard time locating his pitches and seemed to behind on every batter.

In fact on the night the 23-year-old fell behind 15 of the 28 batters he faced, including 10 of the first 18 hitters at a time when he needed to establish some rhythm and control over the Rays while Shields didn't allow a hit and struck out four Sox batters through the first three innings.

But the lack of control didn't hurt Masterson (6IP, 5H, 4ER, 5BB, 5K, 2HR, 105P) early on as he used a double play grounder and a couple of one-pitch at bats to keep the Rays at bay, and his abilty to keep his team in the game paid off when the Sox finally got to Shields in the top of the fourth.

Who else could get the first hit for the Sox than the red hot Dustin Pedroia (1-4, R) as the Little Big Man hit a hard hopper to short that was bobbled by Jason Bartlett but ruled a base hit.

After J.D. Drew flew out to deep right for the second out of the inning Manny the mauler drew a four pitch walk before Mike Lowell (3-4, R, BI) ripped a scorching line drive past a diving Evan Longoria at third base to drive in Pedroia and tie the game at one.

Temporarily.

The Sox fans in the stands (and there was quite a bit fewer Nation members present at the Trop, by all accounts) had barely stopped celebrating before the Rays silenced them completely. Masterson walked Willy Aybar on four pitches with two outs in the bottom of fourth and then Gabe Gross connected on a 2-1 pitch and nearly put it through the back of the stadium, sending the pro-Rays crowd into a frenzy and giving Sox fans the feeling that this was not going to be our night.

That feeling grew as Tampa Bay tacked on single runs in the fifth on an RBI double by Carlos Pena (1-3, BI), and although Drew would stem the tide briefly when he hit his 12th homer of the month to cut the lead to 4-2 in the sixth, the Rays added a key insurance run in the seventh when reliever Chris Smith loaded the bases on three walks and Javier Lopez allowed an RBI groundout by pinch hitter Jonny Gomes.

That run would prove to be a very large one indeed.

After Lopez worked out of a self-induced jam in the bottom of the eighth the Sox had one more chance to try and salvage this game in the top of the ninth. And they very nearly did.

Closer Troy Percival began the frame by striking Ramirez (0-3, Bb, 2K) out on a blazing 90 mph fastball, but then the streaking Lowell belted a double to deep left center to set the wheels in motion for aa potential game-tying rally.

Youk then sliced a ball down the third base line that Longoria overplayed but knocked down for a single that saved a run, and then something happened that you can only see at the glorious stadium known as the Trop:

Brandon Moss hit what should have been a sure pop out but got a ground rule double out of it.

The sky high shot off Moss' bat hit one of the catwalks that ring the top of the Trop, and when it landed 25 feet in front of Gross Lowell had scored, Moss stood at second base and Lowell was at third as the whole place shook their collective heads, thinking THIS is reason #1 why the Rays need a new stadium.

An even stranger thing happened at the tail end of the play as Percival pulled a hammy running to cover third base, and despite his vehement (and profane) protests to manager Joe Maddon he was removed from the game in favor of J.P. Howell.

Alas even with all the oddity and obvious anti-Rays karma working they still had one thing in their favor - Lugo at the plate - and he reminded every Rays fan why they are glad to be rid of the overpriced underachiever when he hit a soft line drive on a 3-2 pitch right at his counterpart Bartlett, and the game ended with a fizzle instead of a bang for Boston.

Round 2 tomorrow and the Sox better have a win in them or its gonna be even tougher for us ex-Pats to exist here in the Bay.

Things could get so bad I might have to head to the beach and drown my sorrows in a bucket of beer while grabbing a handful of smooth white sand.

RECORD: 50-35
AL EAST: 1 1/2 GB
STREAK: L3
LAST 10: 4-6
UP NEXT: Tue @ TB