In front of 24,566 at the Trop last night, the Rays did what was assumed the impossible by many a Masshole: took game two of their current three game series against the Red Sox. And my oh my, did they ever do so in dramatic fashion.
The Rays struck early and enetered the ninth inning with a 5-3 lead, thanks to runs by Kotchman (off of a fifth inning blast to right center), Jaso, and Rodriguez.
However, Farnsworth blew his second save this week by giving up two home runs in a row to Saltalamacchia and Ellsbury in the bottom of the ninth, to tie the game up at five a piece. Ramos came in to get the third out in the ninth. He and Brandon Gomes squashed any hopes of the Red Sox scoring any more runs, as they collectively got the next eight outs in a row, including two strikeouts. In the top of the 11th Desmond Jennings hit a triple to center only to be driven home by a walk-off single to center by Evan Longoria.
The surging Rays will go into today’s game 4.5 games back in the wildcard race. I think it’d be safe to say that today’s game promises to be another highly dramatic, extremely important game.
“Big Game” James Shields (14-10, 2.77 ERA, cough…11 complete games) will take the bump against Jon Lester (15-6, 2.93 ERA) as he tries to tack on yet another complete game, and help the Rays pick up a game off of the slumping Red Sox.
As great as last nights game was, it easily could have gone the other way. Similar to Friday’s game, the offense struck early and they, again, will need to be aggressive at the plate going in to today’s game. Facing Jon Lester will be no walk in the park. And when you consider that Lester has a .223 opponents average, and has only given up 59 runs (56 earned) over the course of 172 innings, you will come to the realization that he is no mouth breather (Lackey) or inexperienced rookie (Weiland).
It goes without saying that Shields is the best person for the job in today’s battle. He is challenged with the task of taking on a an injured and demoralized, yet still very dangerous Red Sox lineup.
With the exception of Kyle Farnsworth’s second blown save in a row, Frankenpen by an far did an excellent job of shutting the Sox down late in the game, and that consistency will have to carry over to today if Shields does the seemingly impossible, and can’t complete the game.
In short, this should be an exciting close to an already exciting and dramatic series against the Sux. The starting lineups are below. As always, go Rays!
Your Tampa Bay Rays, 80-64:
Jennings LF
Upton CF
Longoria 3B
Zobrist 2B
Damon DH
Rodriguez SS
Kotchman 1B
Lobaton C
Guyer RF
Shields P (14-10, 2.77 ERA)
The Boston Red Sox, 85-60:
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Gonzalez 1B
Ortiz DH
Reddick RF
Crawford LF
Varitek C
Scutaro SS
Aviles 3B
Lester P (15-6, 2.93 ERA)