G38: Red Sox 5, Rays 3

Red Sox - 111 000 020 - 5  7  1
Rays    - 001 100 010 - 3  8  0

Cody Ross drove in four of Boston's five runs. He walked with the bases loaded in the first, hit a solo home run to dead center in the third, and grounded a two-run single to center with two outs in the eighth, giving the Red Sox some much-needed insurance.

Doubront (5.2-6-2-4-7, 97) was pulled after putting runners at second and third in the sixth. Boston led 3-2, and Rich Hill preserved that lead by getting Luke Scott to fly to left.

After Boston took a 5-2 lead, Tampa scored a run in the bottom of the eighth and brought the potential tying run to the plate. But Alfredo Aceves got Luke Scott to ground out to second to end the inning. Scott stranded a total of seven runners, and he made the final outs of the first, fourth, sixth, and eighth innings. The Rays left 12 men on base.

Bobby Valentine played mix-and-match with the bullpen, using Hill (1 batter), Scott Atchison (1), Andrew Miller (1), Vicente Padilla (5), and Aceves (5).

I was going after this game tonight. I thought the guys really wanted this game and I was going to do everything we could to win it. ... Sometimes I'll take some future considerations. There weren't any future considerations tonight.

Marlon Byrd homered to lead off the second inning.

Felix Doubront / Matt Moore

Aviles, SS
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Gonzalez, 1B
Middlebrooks, 3B
Ross, RF
Nava, LF
Byrd, CF
Shoppach, C

Doubront and Moore faced off on April 15, a game won by the Red Sox 6-4.

Will Middlebrooks has cooled down considerably:

First five games  .409  .435  1.000
Last eight games  .188  .235   .313

David Ortiz, on Adrian Gonzalez's power outage (two home runs in 168 PA): "My piñata killer is going to be fine."

Last night, in his first rehab game, Kevin Youkilis doubled and walked in three plate appearances. He also scored a run.