| The Hartford Courant, Connecticut Jul. 3--ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- -- It is far too early to draw any conclusions about what took place the past three nights at Tropicana Field. Nearly three months of baseball are left. SAVE MONEY ON TRAVEL DEALS But as the Tampa Bay Rays stormed ahead in the seventh inning Wednesday night, wearing out the Red Sox bullpen for six runs, it was impossible not to recognize which team looked like a division leader and which looked like the victim of a sweep. Coming back from a three-run deficit to beat the Red Sox 7-6 before a sellout crowd of 36,048, the Rays now lead the American League East by 3 1/2 games, putting the second-place Red Sox in their largest divisional deficit since the end of the 2006 season. The Red Sox have lost five in a row. "This series, they played better than us", said Dustin Pedroia, who went 4-for-5 with four extra-base hits, the most by a Red Sox second baseman. "They pitched better than us, they hit better than us, they hit in the clutch better than us. They beat us. That's the way baseball is sometimes. We need to go to New York and play a lot better." Trailing 4-1 entering the seventh, the Rays sent 11 batters to the plate, the first six all reaching and scoring -- three each against relievers Manny Delcarmen and Craig Hansen (1-3, 5.84), who took the loss by walking the first two batters he faced, forcing in a run, then allowing a two-run double to Evan Longoria that gave the Rays a 5-4 lead. Jason Bartlett's single off Javier Lopez, the fourth pitcher of the inning, drove in two runs and gave the Rays a 7-4 lead. "When you see me out on the field that much, something's not going right", manager Terry Francona said. "When things start going wrong, sometimes you can't get to the end. The line kept moving" The Red Sox were as much victims of their mistakes as Rays' heroics. Julio Lugo wiped a run off the board in the fourth by sliding into shortstop Bartlett and was called for interference on a double-play ball. Early in the six-run seventh, Delcarmen failed to cover first on an infield hit by Akinori Iwamura, changing the complexion of the inning. Then in the ninth, with Mike Lowell on first as the tying run, Jason Varitek failed on two hit-and-run attempts, with Lowell easily thrown out at second on Varitek's second swing and miss. He fouled off the first. Varitek then struck out to end the game. Francona called for the hit-and-run to try to shake Varitek from his slump, which reached 12-for-102 (.118) after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. "Tek put a very good swing on the pitch before and we did it again and it didn't work", Francona said. "I know it's a glaring moment in the game, but I felt good about it." After the final out, the P.A. system played "Sweet Caroline" in a mocking gesture and a handmade sign displayed on the Jumbotron read "Sweep Caroline." The Rays are 6-0 against the Red Sox at Tropicana Field, but 0-6 at Fenway. "It reaffirms to us that we can beat these guys", Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "Now we need to do it at Fenway." The Red Sox took a 4-1 lead into the seventh largely on the strength of Pedroia, who homered in the first, tripled and scored in the third and doubled and scored in the fifth. When Pedroia doubled in the eighth, driving in Lugo to cut the Rays' lead to 7-5, he became the first Red Sox player with four extra-base hits in a game since Varitek at Yankee Stadium (two homers, two doubles) on July 4, 2003. The final double actually cost Pedroia the cycle. The last Red Sox second baseman to do so was Bobby Doerr in 1947. "When I got back up after I hit the double, guys were joking you should have fell down", Pedroia said. "I hit the ball well, but I'd much rather win, though." Daisuke Matsuzaka, going for his 10th victory, struggled early with walks, issuing four in the first two innings, and was only able to last five innings and 101 pitches. jgoldberg@courant.com
To see more of The Hartford Courant, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.courant.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Hartford Courant, Conn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related News Topics:
Top sports stories
News of Florida
General sports briefs
Other sports news
Mixed Sports News and Releases
Sports photographs
Miscellaneous sports news
Miscellaneous sports news
|
