Eduardo Rodriguez shined on Thursday night, throwing 6.0 shutout innings as the Boston Red Sox ended up with a four game split with the Tampa Bay Rays with a 4-0 victory at Tropicana Field.
Boston (77-59) got all they needed in the first inning to back Rodriguez. Hunter Renfoe led off the game with a single, and then with two outs Rafeal Devers singled and Renfoe would score when Bobby Dalbec singled to right field. Renfroe knocked in Danny Santana with a single in the second with two outs, after Santana had walked to begin the inning. The Sox finished off the scoring on RBI singles by JD Martinez and Dalbec in the fifth. The story of the night however was Rodriguez. The left hander only allowed four hits with one walk and six strikeouts to improve to 11-7 on the season. Garrett Richards got his second save allowing one hit with one walk and four strikeouts in 3.0 innings of work. Renfroe, Kyle Shwarber, Martinez, and Dalbec had two hits each in one of the better managerial jobs of most recent history by Alex Cora. Shane McClanahan (9-5) took the loss for the Rays who are now 84-50, allowing four runs on eight hits over 5.0 innings.
Boston, who maintains a two game lead for the second American League wild card over Oakland and is 1.5 games behind New York for that first wild card spot, opens up a three game weekend series Friday night with the Cleveland Indians at Fenway Park. Nathan Eovaldi (10-8, 3.71 ERA) will be on the mound in the opener for the Sox, while Cal Quantrill (4-2, 2.93) toes the rubber for the Indians.
