Boston Red Sox edge past Tampa Bay Rays 7-5 – MLB Update
Boston Red Sox edged past the Tampa Bay Rays 7-5 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Tuesday, September 18 in second game of their four match series.
Red Sox’s Manager Bobby Valentine will be extremely pleased with his team’s performance in a game that was played on a very competitive note. Valentine and company secured a comfortable win in series opener and they continued their excellent form in Game
to take an impassable 2-0 series lead.
Red Sox may be out of the playoff race, they still have a chance to cheer up their fans by ending the season on a strong note. It will be interesting to see if they can extend their winning streak to build on some much needed confidence.
Starting pitcher Felix Doubront produced a match winning performance as he gave up just three runs in six solid innings to grab his 11th win of the season. Striking-out five batters, he created all sorts of problems for the Rays’ batting line-up.
"He deserved to win," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "He had that third inning. A couple calls that he got upset with. Three runs later he's on the verge of coming out of the game. Then he got his 11th win. I'm really happy for him. He's been trying
for that one for a long time."
"I don't get frustrated or annoyed when the effort is good. It's more unexplainable because we normally thrive in these moments and we're playing kind of tight," Manager Joe Maddon said.
Relief pitchers Clayton Mortensen, Junichi Tazawa, Vicente Padilla, Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey combined to pitch three sharp innings to help the Red Sox hold on to their lead comfortably.
After the Rays took the early lead, first baseman James Loney singled to right in the fourth inning to put his side on the board. Jacoby Ellsbury continued his excellent hitting form as he singled to right in the fifth inning and Dustin Pedroia hit a sacrifice
fly to right to level the score 3-3.
Pedro Ciriaco and Jarrod Saltalamacchia also made valuable contributions in an impressive Red Sox’s victory.
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