Tampa Bay Rays lose to Boston Red Sox 1-3 in series opener – MLB Update
Tampa Bay Rays lost to Boston Red Sox 1-3 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Friday, July 13 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
In some ways, it was a huge win for the Red Sox, who had lost three out of four against New York Yankees at Fenway Park before the All Star Break. Bobby Valentine and company wanted to start the second half of the season on a high note and that is exactly
what they did on Friday evening to rout their opponents.
The series will be very important to both sides as it can give the winning team some momentum. David Ortiz, once again, showed his class, composure and temperament as he hit his 23rd home-run of the season in the first inning to break the deadlock,
putting the Red Sox 1-0 ahead.
"He showed everybody what he could do in spring training," the All-Star slugger said. "Having him here and doing what he's doing, I'm not surprised."
Pedro Ciriaco also made the most of available opportunities, earning an RBI single to centre to make the score 3-0 in Boston’s favour.
"He blooped a couple more in there, made a good bunt, stole a base," Valentine said in an interview. “He's playing a very high caliber baseball. It was nine innings of really good pitching."
For the Rays, Sean Rodriguez doubled to left in the sixth inning to score the only run. Starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson took his sixth loss of the season after he gave up five hits in three hits in six innings.
"He pitched well. We just didn't score enough runs to make him look good. ... When you only score one run, your mistakes are glaring," Maddon said.
The Rays have experienced a huge dip in their form over the last few weeks and Manager Joe Maddon will be an extremely worried man these days. It will be interesting to see if the Rays can lift the level of their game in the next two games to avoid a humiliating
series defeat.
Tags: