Rays hit 4 HRs, finish sweep of Red Sox
August 5, 2009
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP)—Rookie David Price(notes) is one of the reasons the TampaBay Rays like their chances of getting back to the playoffs.
The 23-year-old left-hander extended Boston’s woes at Tropicana Field onWednesday night, pitching six strong innings in a 6-4 victory that finished atwo-game sweep of the Red Sox and tightened the AL wild-card race.
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“We never felt out of it,” Price said. “A lot of people counted us out,but nobody in here did.”
Facing the Red Sox for the first time since getting the last four outs oflast season’s AL championship series, Price (5-4) allowed two runs and six hitsto improve to 5-1 with a 2.72 ERA at home compared to 0-3 with an 8.20 ERA onthe road.
Carlos Pena(notes), Carl Crawford(notes), Pat Burrell(notes) and Jason Bartlett(notes) homered for theRays, who have won 13 of 15 regular-season meetings between the teams atTropicana Field since the start of 2008.
Pena hit a two-run homer off Brad Penny(notes) (7-6) in the second inning.Crawford, celebrating his 28th birthday, went deep with a man on in the third.Burrell added a solo shot off Penny for a 5-2 lead in the sixth.
Bartlett hit a solo shot off Manny Delcarmen(notes) in the seventh.
“They’re a good team. I don’t think it’s this place,” Red Sox managerTerry Francona said. “It’s who we’re playing. They play us very tough.”
Jason Bay(notes) and Victor Martinez(notes) hit solo homers off Price for Boston, whichfell 2 1/2 games behind AL East-leading New York heading into a four-game seriesthat begins Thursday night at Yankee Stadium.
Price struck out five and walked none.
“David’s got a good head on his shoulders. He doesn’t get overwhelmed. Hejust takes care of his business quietly,” Boston’s Rocco Baldelli(notes) said.
“More than anything we came in today thinking, if he gets behind (in thecount), we can do some damage against him. We couldn’t because he threw strikesand he was in the zone the whole night.”
Boston Red Sox pitcher Hideki … AP – Aug 5, 10:35 pm EDT
With the sweep, the third-place Rays (5 1/2 behind the Yankees) continued toclose on the Red Sox in the division. Three games separate the teams in thestandings, and Tampa Bay leads the season series 8-4, including five of six atTropicana Field.
J.P. Howell(notes) pitched the ninth for his 12th save. After issuing a leadoffwalk, he struck out Jason Varitek(notes) and Jed Lowrie(notes) and got Jacoby Ellsbury(notes) toground out to end the game.
Since posting season highs Sunday with 18 runs and 23 hits to complete aweekend sweep at Baltimore, the Red Sox have fizzled offensively. They werelimited to homers by Kevin Youkilis(notes) and Dustin Pedroia(notes) in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss tothe Rays in 13 innings, and struggled again in key situations against Price.
Boston threatened in the third, fourth and fifth against the left-hander,but went 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position—unable to cut into TampaBay’s lead until Martinez led off the sixth with his 16th homer to trim thedeficit to 4-2.
The Red Sox finished 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Lowriegrounded out to drive in an unearned run in the seventh, and Youkilis’ grounderdrove in Boston’s final run after Pedroia walked and Martinez doubled in theeighth.
Boston Red Sox's Mike Lowe… AP – Aug 5, 10:34 pm EDT
Penny, who’s lost four of five decisions over his last eight starts, allowedfive runs and six hits in six innings.
NOTES: The Red Sox agreed to terms on a minor league contract with RHP PaulByrd(notes). … Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz(notes) had the night off. He saidbefore the game that he’s still waiting for additional information regarding apositive test for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003. … One of Tampa Baymanager Joe Maddon’s first orders of business was making sure no equipment bagswere left on the ground in the team’s bullpen in right field. The Rays costthemselves the go-ahead run in the eighth inning of Tuesday night’s marathonwhen Red Sox RHP Daniel Bard(notes) threw wildly past first after fielding a bunt andthe ball rolled under a bag and was ruled dead. The umpires “interpreted itright,” Maddon said. “It’s one of those things if we win, it’s OK. If youdon’t, it’s not OK.” … Injured Boston RHP Daisuke Matsuzaka(notes) (right shoulderstrain) played long toss and threw at 60 feet on flat ground. He’s scheduled forhis first bullpen session next week and remains hopeful of pitching again thisseason.
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