G37: Rays 11, Red Sox 2

Rays    - 110 100 107 - 11 16  1
Red Sox - 100 010 000 -  2  6  1

Any thought of a Red Sox comeback was put to rest when Robbie Ross and (especially) Heath Hembree imploded in the ninth inning.

Drew Pomeranz (3-3-2-3-3, 57) left the game with left triceps soreness after throwing his fourth-inning warm-up pitches.

Mookie Betts walked and stole second in the first inning, and he scored on Xander Bogaerts's double. Dustin Pedroia's two-out single scored Deven Marrero in the fourth.

Evan Longoria's single off Matt Barnes in the seventh gave Tampa Bay a two-run lead, 4-2. That seemed like enough of a cushion even though the Red Sox had three innings remaining in which to bat. It turned out to be an accurate assessment, but the Rays put seven more runs on the board anyway. It was 5-2 when Hembree entered the game with two outs. The first three batters he faced drove in a run with a single, then Steven Souza hit a three-run homer. Hembree also gave up a double before finally getting the third out.

The game took 4:32 to play, missing the record for a nine-inning game by only 13 minutes.

David Price's scheduled minor league start for Pawtucket was rained out, so he threw a simulated game indoors instead. After throwing 75 pitches, Price said, "I threw all of my pitches to both sides of the plate. I did really well today." He plans on pitching for the PawSox in Buffalo on Friday.

Matt Andriese / Drew Pomeranz

Betts, RF
Pedroia, 2B
Bogaerts, SS
Benintendi, LF
Ramirez, DH
Moreland, 1B
Vazquez, C
Bradley, CF
Marrero, 3B

David Price will start for Pawtucket today. He is scheduled for five innings or 70-75 pitches.

Craig Kimbrel has faced 59 batters this season and struck out 33 of them. His K/9 of 17.8 would be the highest of his career. Kimbrel has walked only two batters all year, both coming on April 9. Since then, he has faced 48 batters without issuing a base on balls.

Mookie Betts became the Red Sox's current leadoff hitter last Saturday; he has 12 RBIs in his last six games at the top of the order. Betts is the first player with three games of three or more RBIs from the leadoff slot over a span of five days (4-1-3-0-3) since Alfonso Soriano (Cubs, 2008). The only other Red Sox players to do that were Tommy Harper (1973) and Darren Lewis (1998).

In yesterday's Padres/White Sox game, Jose Abreu reached on an error. Avisail Garcia was at the plate. San Diego pitcher Trevor Cahill had this sequence: ball, foul, swinging strike (Abreu to second on wild pitch), ball (Abreu to third on wild pitch), ball, ball (García walked; Abreu scored on wild pitch). Cahill also threw a wild pitch earlier in the game and now has eight this year.