Aaron Cook helps Boston Red Sox beat hapless Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 – MLB Update
Boston Red Sox crushed the Tampa Bay Rays 5-2 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Monday, September 17 in the opening game of their four match series.
After Rays broke the deadlock to take a 1-0 lead, Jacoby Ellsbury homered to right in the sixth inning to put his side on the board. Designated hitter Mauro Gomez singled to left in the seventh to extend Red Sox’s lead to 4-1.
Ellsbury continued to put pressure on the Rays, scoring runs at regular intervals. He singled to left in the seventh to give his side an impassable 5-1 lead.
Ben Zobrist earned an RBI groundout to shortstop in the ninth to reduce Rays’ deficit to 2-5 but the Red Sox were too hot to handle on Monday as they held on to their lead comfortably to prevail in the opener.
"We're both really into that game, and we needed to win that game," Cobb said. "I honestly don't really know what the argument was about, still. We'll work things out. We'll talk about it tomorrow, or whatever, and leave it behind us."
"For five innings it looked like we didn't have any gas in our tank, and then Iggy ignited us a little bit," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "And Ells took a lot of time in between pitches and hit a 3-1 pitch, and he gave us the lead."
Red Sox showed great composure and resilience in series opener to outclass the Rays in almost all aspects of the game. The pitching rotation in particular played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash, allowing just two runs against a very powerful
batting line-up.
It will be interesting to see if Bobby Valentine and company can continue to come up with a similar performance in Game 2 to stretch their winning streak.
Starting pitcher Aaron Cook produced a match winning performance as he gave up just five hits and a run in six solid innings to claim his fourth win of the season. Relief pitchers Rich Hill, Junichi Tazawa and Mark Melancon kept Rays on the defensive, giving
up just one run in three effective innings.
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