With Boston falling, 3-2, to the Astros yesterday afternoon, a tie-breaking pinch single by former Sox second baseman Mark Loretta the latest blow to Hideki Okajima's increasingly fragile psyche, the Sox find themselves a half-game in arrears of the Rays, 4-3 winners in Pittsburgh.
The Rays, of course, never have been in first place this deep into any of their previous 10 seasons. No team in the American League East other than the Yankees or Red Sox have been in first as late as July since the 2000 season, when the Blue Jays still held the top spot on July 14 before fading to third.
Sox third baseman Mike Lowell, mindful that the Rays swept the Sox on their last visit to the Trop in April, professed not to be surprised that the Rays are where they are.
"They've played damn good baseball for three months," said Lowell, who came to the plate against Astros closer Jose Valverde with a chance to duplicate his ninth-inning home run from Saturday night, but instead tapped into a force play, Kevin Youkilis then lining out to leave the Sox with a total of 13 stranded runners yesterday. "I think that's a pretty good track record. This is a big series for us. We want to play well. But I don't think it's a be-all or end-all."
But will it be that for the Rays?
"It's a big series," Lowell reiterated. "The media are going to want to hype it up. It's a series that whoever wins will be in first place at the end of it, and that's important to us."
The Rays have their three best pitchers lined up to face the Sox: James Shields, Matt Garza, and Scott Kazmir, in that order.
Josh Beckett, Boston's best pitcher, could do no better than a no-decision yesterday. Beckett's inability to get down a bunt with runners on the corners with one out in the sixth was more exasperating than anything he did on the mound (a solo home run to Geoff Blum in the second, another run in the fifth after he walked the pitcher, Hunter Pence beat out an infield tapper, and Lance Berkman, whose .364 average is second only to Chipper Jones in the big leagues, whistled a single past Beckett's ear).
