September 10, 2011

G145: Rays 6, Red Sox 5 (11)

Red Sox   - 010 020 002 00 - 5  9  0
Rays      - 111 011 000 01 - 6 11  0
Boston tied the game in the top of the ninth when, with one out, Jarrod Saltalamacchia (#16) and Jacoby Ellsbury (#26) hit back-to-back home runs off Kyle Farnsworth.

Jonathan Papelbon set the Rays down in the ninth and tenth innings on a total of 16 pitches, but Tampa Bay scored quickly against Daniel Bard in the eleventh.

Desmond Jennings led off the inning with a triple to right-center, just beyond Ellsbury's reach. Bard retired B.J. Upton on a first-pitch grounder to first and he got ahead of Evan Longoria 0-2, but Longoria lined a sharp single to center to give the Red Sox their fourth straight loss.

The Red Sox are 1-5 on this Toronto/Tampa road trip and their lead over the Rays in the wild card standings has shrunk to 4.5 games, with 17 games remaining. In addition to the series finale Sunday afternoon, the Red Sox and Rays meet at Fenway Park for four games beginning next Thursday.

One bright spot: the Yankees lost their fourth in a row tonight, as well, falling 6-0 to the Angels.
Example
Kyle Weiland / Jeremy Hellickson
Ellsbury, CF
Pedroia, 2B
Gonzalez, 1B
Ortiz, DH
Reddick, RF
Crawford, LF
Lowrie, 3B
Scutaro, SS
Saltalamacchia, C
Game thread.

And Yankees/Angels at 9 PM. ... A tangent to the fuming over Terry Francona for letting Daniel Bard implode on Wednesday night and then choosing Matt Albers over Jonathan Papelbon: New York has lost three straight games - two in extra innings and one in the bottom of the 9th - and Fruitbat has not pitched in any of them.

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