The Tampa Bay Rays built an 8-3 fifth inning lead on Wednesday night, and would hold off the Boston Red Sox 9-7 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg for the third straight win in the series over Boston. Tampa also improves their record to 12-0, tying a club record for consecutive wins and is one win shy of tying an MLB record to open a season.
Randy Arozarena got his team off to a quick start with a three-run homerun to right field off Chris Sale in the first inning. Justin Turner got Boston (5-7) on the board with an RBI single to left in the fourth, but the Rays extended it to 6-1 in the bottom half of the frame on a Yandy Diaz sacrifice fly and a two-run double from Wander Franco. The Red Sox bounced right back on an RBI double by Kike Hernandez and an RBI single by Alex Verdugo in the fifth inning to climb back within 6-3. Tampa Bay once again had the answer though in the last half on a Christian Bethancourt RBI double and a run scoring single from Vidal Brujan as they were in control 8-3 behind rookie starting pitcher Taj Bradley who was making his MLB debut. Boston got back in the game on a Raimel Tapia RBI groundout in the sixth, before Rafael Devers took reliever Colin Poche deep in the seventh for a three-run homer to left cut it to 8-7. Arozarena added some insurance in the eighth with an RBI sacrifice fly. After a leadoff single in the ninth inning by Reese McGuire, Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks closed the door with three straight outs to record his second save of the series and second of the season.
McGuire had three hits, while Turner and Verdugo both had two in the loss for Boston. Sale (1-1) allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits with two walks and six strikeouts in 4.0 innings in taking the pitching defeat. Franco had three hits for Tampa Bay, and Bethancourt and Brujan had two a piece. Arozarena had four RBI. Bradley (1-0) won his debut after being charged with three runs on five hits with only one walk and eight strikeouts in 5.0 innings. The Rays can match the 1982 Atlanta Braves and 1987 Milwaukee Brewers as the only two teams to begin a season at 13-0 in the modern era if they can complete the sweep on Thursday. They have already tied their club record with the 12 consecutive victories that was set in June 2004 when they were known as the Devil Rays. The pitching matchup for the finale on Thursday at 1:10 is Corey Kluber (0-2, 6.48 ERA) for Boston against Jeffrey Springs (2-0, 0.00 ERA) for Tampa Bay.
Story by Chris Lessner
