In this American League East battle, the Rays lost the series against the Red Sox. Here is a recap of the series.
Game 1
For the first game of the series, Matt Andriese took the hill for the Rays and Rick Porcello took the hill for the Red Sox. In the bottom of the 2nd, Mookie Betts homered off Andriese giving the Red Sox a one run lead on the Rays. After Betts’ homer, Young scored on a RBI single from Holt, causing the score to be 2-0. The Rays tied it up in the top of the third when Nick Franklin scored on Wilson’s single. Wilson then proceeded to score on Longoria’s sacrifice fly. In the bottom of the 4th, Young picked up two RBI’s from a double that scored Hanley Ramirez and Travis Shaw. Following that, Holt picked up an RBI double that scored Young. Score 5-2 Red Sox. Next inning Corey Dickerson scored off of Logan Forsythe’s ground out. When it was the Red Sox turn to bat, Betts picked up a RBI double which Ortiz scored. After that, Betts scored on Shaw’s infield single. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Leon had a RBI double that scored both Ramirez and Shaw, causing the score to be 9-3. In the top of the 8th Longoria had another sacrifice fly in the game that scored Wilson. The Rays were unable to make up ground causing the final score to be 9-4 in the Red Sox’s favor. Rick Porcello also became the first pitcher this season to collect 18 wins with his win in this game.
Red Sox: 9 Rays: 4
WP: R. Porcello (18-3)
LP: M. Andriese (6-6)
Game 2
Jake Odorizzi took the mound for the Rays and Drew Pomeranz took the mound for the Red Sox. To start off the game, Kevin Kiermaier doubled and then scored on a single by Brad Miller giving the Rays a 1-0 lead. Over the next few innings bats were silent until Hanley Ramirez homered off of Odorizzi in the bottom of the 5th inning. In the bottom of the 6th, the Red Sox took the lead with a sacrifice fly from David Ortiz that scored Dustin Pedroia who had walked. After that, Ramirez collected an RBI single scoring Boegarts, causing the Red Sox to lead 3-1. However in the top of the 7th, Maile homered and scored Beckham who had singled, tying up the game. The Rays took the lead in the 8th with a home run from Evan Longoria and won the game 3-4.
Red Sox: 3 Rays: 4
WP: E. Romero (2-0)
LP: C. Buchholz (5-10)
S: A. Colome (29)
Game 3
In the last game of the series, Drew Smyly took the mound for Tampa and Steven Wright took the mound for Boston. The Rays started off the top of the first with a single from Kiermaier who later scored on Miller’s ground rule double, giving the Rays an early lead. However, the Red Sox tied the game up in the bottom of the first with a home run by Boegarts. In the next inning, Logan Forsythe homered which scored Wilson who had doubled. Then again in the top of the 4th, the Rays collected another home run, this time from Logan Morrison. Going into the bottom of the 5th, the Rays were leading the Red Sox until Hanley Ramirez hit a grand slam off of Smyly, causing the score to become 5-4 in the Red Sox’s favor. When Kevin Jepsen came in to relieve Smyly in the 6th, he let up a home run Bradley Jr. which furthered the Red Sox’s lead. The Rays tied it up in the top of the 8th when Franklin and Beckham scored on Forsythe’s single. However, in the bottom of the 8th gained two more runs. This time it was from an RBI single from Hill that scored Ramirez and a double from Bradley Jr. that scored Holt. The Rays were unable to make up ground and loss the game 8-6.
Red Sox: 8 Rays: 6
WP: J. Tazawa (3-2)
LP: E. Ramirez (7-10)
S: C. Kimbrel (24)
Up Next: The Rays go back to Tropicana Field to battle the number one team in the AL East, The Toronto Blue Jays. Along with that, Alex Cobb will be making his first appearance back since Tommy John’s surgery.
Probables vs Toronto
9/2- Liriano (7-12) vs Cobb (0-0)
9/3-Stroman (9-5) vs Snell (4-7)
9/4- Dickey (9-13) vs Archer (8-17)
