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August 21, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Sometimes they come easy. Sometimes they don't. And sometimes -- like tonight -- they come a lot harder than they should.
Still, when all was said and done, the Red Sox did what they usually do against the Devil Rays: They won.
Boston outhit Tampa Bay 11-4 but had to fight to the end to come up with an 8-6 victory, which improved their record against the Rays this year to 9-2. Jonathan Papelbon nailed it down with a four-out save, striking out three of the four batters he faced. The save, his 30th of the year, made a winner of Jon Lester.
Papelbon is the first pitcher in Red Sox history to have back-to-back 30-save seasons.
Lester struggled through 5 2/3 innings, allowing four hits (including two homers), four walks and five runs. He was bit by the home-run ball, as Carlos Pena touched him for a two-run homer in the first inning, tying the game at 2-2, and Akinori Iwamura hit a three-run shot in the fifth, cutting Boston's lead to 7-5.
Still, thanks to 3 1/3 innings of one-run relief from Manny Delcarmen, Hideki Okajima and Papelbon, he was able to record the victory, upping his record to 2-0.
The game was decided when the Red Sox put up five runs in the fourth inning.
With the score tied 2-2, David Ortiz led off with a soft grounder to the left of the mound and beat pitcher Andy Sonnanstine's throw to first for an infield single. After Manny Ramirez struck out, Mike Lowell was hit on the left hand by a pitch, putting runners on first and second. J.D. Drew followed with a hard single to left, loading the bases.
Jason Varitek put the Red Sox ahead to stay with a soft single into left, driving in Ortiz and making it 3-2. Coco Crisp then ripped a hard grounder down the first-base line and into the right-field corner for a two-run double, giving the Sox a 5-2 lead. Julio Lugo made it 7-2 with his own two-run double, to center.
Boston had taken a quick 2-0 lead in the first when Kevin Youkilis doubled, Ortiz tripled and Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly. A two-out, two-run homer by Pena tied the score in the bottom of the first.
The teams traded unearned runs in the seventh, with the Sox scoring on an error by shortstop Josh Wilson and the Devil Rays scoring when Pedroia dropped a potential inning-ending liner by Carl Crawford.
Posted by Art Martone 
at 10:07 PM | Permalink
