G149: Rays 3, Red Sox 2

Red Sox - 000 002 000 - 2  3  2
Rays    - 100 011 00x - 3  8  0

Jake Odorizzi (6-1-2-2-6, 96) did not allow a hit for five innings. But after he walked Brock Holt to start the sixth, Jackie Bradley belted a two-run homer.

Not long after Bradley's blast tied the game 2-2, Eduardo Rodriguez (5.2-7-3-1-7, 110) gave up a solo home run to Jesus Sucre, and Tampa Bay had its margin of victory.

The Red Sox had only five baserunners in the game:

1st inning - Dustin Pedroia walked with one out. Stranded at first.

6th inning - Holt walked with no one out. Bradley homered to right.

8th inning - Bradley singled to shortstop with two outs. Stranded at first.

9th inning - Andrew Benintendi singled to center with one out. Rajai Davis ended the game on the next pitch with a 6-4-3 double play. (The Red Sox saw only four pitches in the inning.)

David Price pitched two innings of relief, his first appearance for the Red Sox since July 22. He retired all six batters he faced, throwing 21 pitches (he needed only seven in the seventh). He recorded two strikeouts.

Before today, Price had pitched in a regular season game as a reliever only five times (all with the Rays): four appearances in September 2008 (when he was first called up) and one inning in the penultimate game of the 2010 season. Price has six postseason relief appearances: five in 2008 (against the Red Sox) and once in 2015 (for the Blue Jays).

Mookie Betts left the game in the fifth inning with a bruised right thumb. Betts grounded out in the fourth inning and was tagged by first baseman Lucas Duda, who came off the base to catch the wide throw from third base.

MFY Watch: The Orioles beat the Yankees 6-4.

Eduardo Rodriguez / Jake Odorizzi

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

Mike Lupica, Daily News:

The Yankees, I believe, are a better team right now than the Red Sox, even running out of games and time. The Yankees, even with ground to make up on the Red Sox between here and the finish line, are set up better for the playoffs than the Red Sox are, and that includes with starting pitching, something nobody would have believed when the season started ...

But it is more than just pitching. The Yankees have something that the Red Sox, who chose to pass on Edwin Encarnacion, do not, and that is home-run danger up and down their lineup. ...

I think the Red Sox are young and talented and fun to watch ... They aren't going anywhere for years to come. But with all these kids, and all this talent, the playoff resume on this team — with the exception of Dustin Pedroia — is as thin as the Yankees'. The Red Sox may well hold off the Yankees in the East. The Yankees are still a better team.

(Yo, Chuck, he must be on the pipe, right?)

AL East: The Yankees are 3 GB. ... BAL/MFY. ... A Red Sox win today would eliminate both the Orioles and Blue Jays; if either of those teams lose, they would eliminate themselves. (I do not want the Red Sox to lose today, but watching Boston officially end the Orioles' hopes tomorrow night at Camden Yards would be nice.)