Final: Rays 6, Red Sox 2

August 16, 2011|Nick Cafardo, Globe Staff

Final: Rays 6, Red Sox 2: The Sox go down in order in the ninth and the Rays salvage a split of the doubleheader. They come back tomorrow afternoon and finish up the short series.

Top of the ninth, Rays 6, Red Sox 2: An awkward double by Johnny Damon that bounced fair in left field, then off the fence in foul territory then died in short left turned out to be harmless.

Bottom of the eighth, Rays 6, Red Sox 2: The Sox offense only mustered three hits in the first game of the double header and they have just three in the nightcap. With David Ortiz out of the lineup, they've gotten no hits from the DH spot. Dustin Pedroia and Adrian Gonzalez are both 0 for the doubleheader.

Top of the eighth, Rays 6, Red Sox 2: The Rays get three runs on four hits -- they also utilized some clever base-running, scoring on a convoluted double-steal -- and stretch their lead.

Bottom of the seventh, Rays 3, Red Sox 2: Carl Crawford drew boos from the Fenway crowd after he struck out for the third time this game and the fourth time overall today.

Top of the seventh, Rays 3, Red Sox 2: Dustin Pedroia has a couple of web gems tonight, both on scalding hot line drives. This one came of the bat of Desmond Jennings (who's killing the ball today) and probably would have plated Sean Rodriguez (who reached after he was hit by a pitch for the second time today) if Pedroia hadn't snared it.

Bottom of the sixth, Rays 3, Red Sox 2: Jacoby Ellsbury's power surge continues today. He's hit his second home run of the twin bill. This time, though, the bases were empty, so the Sox still trail.

Top of the sixth, Rays 3, Red Sox 1: Ben Zobrist gets his second hit of the night, but the Rays can't capitalize.

Bottom of the fifth, Rays 3, Red Sox 1:The Sox go down in order. Jeff Niemann's up to six strikeouts after catching Jason Varitek (swinging) and Darnell McDonald (looking).

Top of the fifth, Rays 3, Red Sox 1: Desmond Jennings got a hold o the first pitch he saw with two outs and shot it over the Monster for his fifth home run of the season.

Bottom of the fourth, Rays 2, Red Sox 1: Dustin Pedroia shot one out to the Monster but it landed on the wrong side of the foul pole. Josh Reddick bounced out to second and Carl Crawford struck out for the second time tonight (this time swinging). Crawford came in hitting .167 (3 for 18) against his former team coming into this doubleheader.

Top of the fourth, Rays 2, Red Sox 1: Triple plays are going around these days. The Brewers turned one yesterday. Now, the Sox see it and raise it, with Jed Lowrie going around the horn on a Sean Rodriguez ground ball to get three. It was the Sox's first triple play since July 8, 1994 when John Valentin turned an unassisted triple play at shortstop.