Tampa Bay Rays annihilate Boston Red Sox 13-3 – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays humiliated the Boston Red Sox 13-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Wednesday, September 19 in third game of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Manager Joe Maddon will be extremely pleased to see his team back on the winning track. Having lost seven out of their last ten games, it seems the Rays are out of the American League East title race. However, Maddon will be expecting his men to regroup
and fight back to grab one of the American League Wild Card spots.
Red Sox, on the other hand, will be disappointed with the fact they missed out on an excellent chance to secure a rare series victory at Tropicana Field. With a comfortable 5-2 in series opener, the Red started the series in a thrilling fashion. Bobby Valentine
and his men continued their good work in Game 2 to dent their opponents’ confidence levels.
Credit should be given to the Rays for showing excellent fighting abilities under pressure in Game 3. It will be interesting to see if the Red Sox can turn the tables on their AL East rivals in the finale.
Starting pitcher Chris Archer produced a masterful performance for the Rays as he gave up just five hits and three runs in five solid innings to grab his first win of the season. Archer will be very happy with his effort in a crucial AL East encounter and
surely he will be looking to maintain his form to cement his place on Rays’ big league roster.
"We want to do a little of Minnesota Fats ... got to run the table," Maddon said. "We've got to believe we can do it. We have to get really hot. We have no alternative."
"It feels pretty good," Archer said. "This is a classic example of keep the team in the game for as long as you can and they'll pull it out for you. I think it was big all around tonight. It's hard not to be selfish, but as a team it's awesome that we got
the win, and for it to be my first one, that's pretty amazing, too."
Relief pitchers Jake McGee, Brandon Gomes and Dane De La Rosa combined to pitch four scoreless inning to help Rays secure a huge victory.
Jacoby Ellsbury singled to shallow left in the first inning to put Red Sox on the board. Matt Joyce walked in the second and Evan Longoria scored to level the score 1-1 for Tampa Bay in the second inning. Ben Zobrist singled to centre in the third. Jeff
Keppinger and Carlos Pena hit back-to-back home-runs to give Rays complete control of the situation.
Desmond Jennings, Luke Scott, Carlos Pena and Joe Molina toyed with Red Sox’s pitching as Tampa Bay secured a comfortable win.
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