G106: Rays 6, Red Sox 4

Red Sox - 010 001 110 - 4  7  0
Rays    - 022 001 10x - 6  7  1

Penny (6-6-5-2-5, 117) was annoying and underwhelming, allowing two two-run home runs in the early innings -- Carlos Pena in the second and Carl Crawford in the third. Tampa Bay swept the brief two-game series.

In the eighth, Dustin Pedroia walked and Victor Martinez, who hit his first Red Sox home run in the sixth, doubled. Boston was down by three, but had runners at second and third and no one out.

In came Dan Wheeler -- who retired the side on only five pitches. Kevin Youkilis grounded out to third on the first pitch (FY scored). Jason Bay (who had donged in the second) grounded out to shortstop on the first pitch. Mike Lowell popped out to shortstop on a 1-1 pitch. Inexcusable.

Yankees beat the Blue Jays 8-4 and are 2.5 GA of the Red Sox. The Rays are 5.5 GB.

Brad Penny (5.07, 92 ERA+) / David Price (5.10, 89 ERA+)

It would be quite nice if Penny could give us seven innings tonight. If he does, it would be his longest start of the season. He has pitched 6.2 innings once, 6.1 three times, and 6.0 seven times.

So who will be available tonight? Here are the innings pitched, batters faced, and number of pitches thrown by each Red Sox reliever last night:

             IP  BF  PIT
Okajima     0.2   3    9
Delcarmen   1.0   4   13
Papelbon    1.0   3   15
Bard        0.2   7   29
Saito       1.2   8   31
Ramirez     1.2   8   33

Also at 7 PM: Yankees/Blue Jays.