“Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of crazy things that happened in the games,’’ Lowrie said. “All sorts of crazy stuff.’’
The Red Sox ran up against a pair of complete-game pitching efforts by James Shields, for his franchise-record ninth of the season, and Jeff Niemann, who outdueled Erik Bedard, in the nightcap.
Tampa’s dynamic duo allowed five runs on six hits and a pair of walks, and they struck out 16. They limited the Sox to a season-low three hits in each game, but allowed Boston to score all of its runs on homers, including a pair of clouts by Jacoby Ellsbury - a decisive three-run homer off Shields in the third inning of the first game and a solo shot off Niemann in the sixth of the nightcap.
“He pitched well,’’ Ellsbury said of Niemann, who struck out 10. “He has good stuff. He was locating and he was getting guys to chase and he was very effective.’’
The Sox started two lefthanders for the first time since April 26, 1992, when Matt Young and Joe Hesketh went to the mound against the Rangers.
This time, the Sox got mixed results.
Jon Lester went seven innings in Game 1 before a Fenway crowd of 38,525. He overcame a sluggish start, allowing one run on first-inning doubles by Desmond Jennings and Ben Zobrist, to throw six scoreless frames. He retired 12 in a row, striking out the side in the fourth and getting the Rays to go 1-2-3 in the fifth on six pitches.
“Going into it, you know it’s going to be a tight game,’’ said Lester (12-6, 3.22 ERA), who got superb bullpen support from Daniel Bard, who threw a perfect eighth, and Jonathan Papelbon, who clinched it with a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his 28th save.
“He’s not going to make a lot of mistakes,’’ Lester said of Shields. “Fortunately, when he did make mistakes that one inning, we took advantage of it. And that’s what you have to do against a good pitcher.’’
Bedard, making his third start since being acquired from Seattle at the July 31 trading deadline, wasn’t as fortunate in the nightcap.
