Red Sox hold Rays at bay 8-4
Jonathan Papelbon bailed Boston out of an eighth-inning jam and Jason Bay, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis homered Tuesday night to help the Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 8-4 in the opener of a series crucial to the AL wild-card race.
Papelbon entered with two runs in and the bases loaded with no outs and shut down the AL champions in the eighth with help from a diving catch by center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who snared Jason Bartlett’s sinking liner before scrambling to his feet to keep a runner from tagging up at third.
Papelbon, who struck out B.J. Upton for the first out, got Carl Crawford to foul out to end the inning. The right-hander pitched a perfect ninth for his 33rd save, fifth of more than one inning.
The victory is the 11th in 14 games for Boston, which got a rare win at Tropicana Field to drop Tampa Bay a season-high six games behind the wild-card leaders.
Just as discouraging for the Rays, who also trail Texas in the wild-card standings, was the announced crowd of 17,692 – less than half the capacity at Tropicana Field and 11,755 less than the teams averaged for six other meetings in the domed stadium this season.