Rays close gap on Red Sox 6-4
Carlos Pena, Carl Crawford and Pat Burrell homered in support of rookie left-hander David Price, and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 6-4 on Wednesday night to finish a two-game series sweep.
Facing the Red Sox for the first time since getting the last four outs of last season’s AL championship series, Price (5-4) allowed two runs and six hits in six innings to improve to 5-1 at home compared to 0-3 with an 8.20 ERA on the road.
Pena hit a two-run homer off Brad Penny (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.
Jason Bartlett also homered for the Rays, belting a solo shot off Manny Delcarmen in the seventh.
Jason Bay and Victor Martinez hit solo homers off Price for Boston, which begins a four-game series against the AL East-leading New York Yankees Thursday.
With the sweep, the third-place Rays continued to close on the Red Sox in the division. Three games separate the teams in the standings, and Tampa Bay leads the season series 8-4, including five of six at Tropicana Field.
J.P. Howell pitched the ninth for his 12th save. After issuing a leadoff walk, he struck out Jason Varitek and Jed Lowrie and got Jacoby Ellsbury to ground out to end the game.
Nationals 5, Marlins 4: Cristian Guzman fell a home run shy of the cycle, Adam Dunn homered in his third straight game.
Ryan Zimmerman and Ronnie Belliard also connected for the Nationals, who improved to 10-6 under interim manager Jim Riggleman. Washington has won the first two games of this series after dropping the first nine meetings this year.
Nyjer Morgan continued to give the Nationals a spark from the leadoff spot. He walked twice, stole two bases and scored two runs. Five of the Nationals’ eight hits went for extra-bases.
Dan Uggla hit a solo homer for the Marlins in the second inning and added a two-run single in the seventh.