ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Coming into the series, in a place that had given the Red Sox nightmares the past two years, one could have been excused for feverish visions of a sweep that would have put the Sox in danger and would have gotten the Rays back in the wild-card picture.
The Sox had, after all, managed just two wins in 15 regular-season games against the Rays in 2008 and 2009, including a two-game sweep in their most recent attempt on the Tropicana Field’s turf.
After things went their way Tuesday, they lost Wednesday, but they knew going into last night’s finale they would, at the very least, not be swept.
They rode a good pitching performance by Clay Buchholz, coupled with another outburst from their offense, to a 6-3 win last night, and a win in the series. As Jason Bay said, “This game was a two-game swing in the standings. I think probably pretty important either way, for us and them. Lucky for us, we won it.’’
With the Rays now six games out of first place, the Sox have likely shut off one area of competition for the wild card. Texas was off last night, leaving the Sox’ closest competition three games out for the final playoff spot.
“Even if we had [had success here], wins are wins,’’ manager Terry Francona said. “This is a tough place for everybody. We’ve had a run lately that hasn’t been very good. I think part of that is they’re good, and they play us very good. For us to win here, you have to play good games. Five, six years ago we’d come down here and Manny [Ramirez] or David [Ortiz] would hit a three-run homer, or we’d get in their bullpen. I don’t want to say have our way, that’s not fair, but we’d win.
“Now you’ve got to come down and you’ve got to play clean baseball - or you lose.’’
Early on, it appeared that might be the case. With Buchholz shaky for that first inning, an inning in which he acknowledged there might have been some nerves involved, this could have gone the other way. But Buchholz righted himself, the offense righted itself, and the Sox were on their way to a series win in a place that hasn’t seen a lot of wins by visitors, period.
Handed a 2-0 lead, Buchholz promptly gave it back in the bottom of the first.
“Pretty big game,’’ he said. “Everybody knows that we needed to win it to set the pace for the next month. After they got their first couple hits, I just told myself make pitches and you’ll get outs.