The veteran righthander didn't give up a three-run homer, but he couldn't get the job done. He walked two men unintentionally and one intentionally and he gave up a sacrifice fly to B.J. Upton. The Rays won, 9-8. Those are the facts.
A further fact is the Rays saved face and avoided a 2-0 hole. They're very happy.
The Red Sox come out of here with a split. They lost a tough game, but as tough a game as it was to lose, they accomplished a very real objective. The next three are at Fenway and Jon Lester is ready.
The fans got their money's worth, with baseballs flying all over The Trop and the home team driving 2007 postseason darling Josh Beckett from the mound in less than five innings.
It started out as a complete assault on the starting pitchers. The Red Sox outhomered the Rays, 4-3, with Dustin Pedroia evoking memories of such diminutive sluggers as Joe Morgan and Jimmy "Toy Cannon" Wynn by slamming two. But the Rays were relentless, coming back from deficits of 2-0, 3-2, and 6-5. They chased a battered Beckett with three runs in the fifth after the Red Sox had hit three homers in their half - the first two off Scott Kazmir and the third off Grant Balfour - with the centerpiece blow being a run-scoring double into the left corner by heralded rookie third baseman Evan Longoria, who went homer, double, double in his three at-bats against Beckett.
Of course, by the time this 5-hour-27-minute game was over, the 34,904 in attendance could have been forgiven for thinking those seven home runs had taken place in an earlier lifetime. After all the bashing of baseballs, the game evolved into the kind of tense, situational, one-mistake-can-make-the-difference game that has characterized so many of the meetings between these clubs this season.
The Red Sox had chances to win. They stranded 13, including two in the top of the 11th when 23-year-old gem of the organization David Price, making the second postseason appearance of his career (it was Timlin's 45th), got out of a two-on, one-out jam by striking out Mark Kotsay and getting Coco Crisp on a grounder to third.
You've got to love that juxtaposition. W-Price, age 23. L-Timlin, age 42.
