Boston Red Sox beaten by Tampa Bay Rays 4-7 – MLB Update
Boston Red Sox were beaten by Tampa Bay Rays 4-7 at Fenway park in Boston, Massachusetts on Friday, May 25 in the opener of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Kevin Youkilis provided the Red Sox with an excellent start as he singled centre in the first inning and Mike Aviles scored to put Boston 1-0 ahead. The Rays gave an immediate response, thanks to Matt Joyce who hit a Grand Slam in the third inning to dent
Red Sox’s confidence levels.
Rays’ offence continued to swing aggressively and Elliot Johnson homered to left centre in the fourth inning to give them 6-1 lead. Carlos Pena also joined the party as he hit a home run to cap a three run fourth inning. For the Red Sox, Adrian Gonzalez
had an RBI double to left and Mike Aviles hit a sacrifice fly to centre to keep his team in the game.
Starting pitcher Jon Lester, who had allowed just four home runs all season prior to this game, gave up six hits and seven runs, while striking out four and walking three.
"We were all out there. They were out there," Valentine said. "I liked the spirit of the guys going out there. Salty was great. I had a little adrenaline going and the guys had some adrenaline going, so that's good. Nothing wrong with that. ... Maybe it
was the ghost of Fenway past remembering that he bad-mouthed all our fans and our stadium or something, just directing the ball at his leg."
"I can imagine it's a great place for someone to go watch a baseball game and the nostalgia of it," Scott said.
Bobby Valentine and company will be disappointed to lose the game after they displayed some top quality baseball skills in their previous series, which stopped them from moving over the .500 win percentage mark for the fourth time this season.
Boston’s loss to Tampa Bay on Friday evening damaged their record to 22-23 and it will be exciting to see if they can turn the tables in the next two games to give their fans something to cheer about.
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