Tampa Bay Rays lose ground in AL East with loss to Red Sox
In the thick of a playoff push, and with 22 games left in the season, what the Tampa Bay Rays had to do was win to avoid losing anymore ground to the American League East-leading Yankees. But an 11-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, with 37,756 in attendance, places them a step back from first place in their division.
The loss now puts the Rays 2.5 games behind New York, who defeated the Orioles 3-2 earlier on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, and moves Boston to within 6.5 games of Tampa Bay in the AL Wild Card race.
But no one could have predicted the outcome, not after the Rays stormed to a 4-0 lead after the second inning. Tampa made a statement early on, scoring a run in the first frame and produced a three-run second inning, thanks to B.J. Upton’s three-run homer off Boston starter Tim Wakefield.
"The way we came out was really impressive, and you'd like to think with him [Garza] pitching under those circumstances that we would have a chance to at least add on, but they came back real quickly," said Rays’ manager Joe Maddon.
But it didn’t take long for the Sox to respond. Adrian Beltre blasted a two-run homer to cut the deficit in half heading into the third inning. Beltre’s homer gave him 1,001 RBIs in his career.
"It was big," said Beltre. "Even though we started a little behind, I know we had to score some runs tonight, because [Matt] Garza always gives us a hard time, but we got to him tonight."
Marco Scutaro and David Ortiz added solo home runs to tie the score at 4-4, and Boston continued its hot hitting and finished with five homers and 17-hits. After Tampa Bay briefly took the lead again, the Red Sox added seven unanswered runs and Wakefield, who gave up six hits and four earned runs over five innings, earned his 193rd win of his career.
The much needed victory improves the Red Sox’s record to 78-62, and they will turn their focus on the A’s as the two clubs are set to meet on Friday at the Oakland Coliseum.
Boston is optimistic about their post-season chances and firmly believe that they have a good chance to be playing after the regular season. "We have to play like there's no tomorrow," said Beltre. "There's no doubt about that. Even though we're 6.5 games [back] tonight, we've got 20-plus games left. Anything can happen."
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