Rays bullpen secures tight win in the rain
The Rays defeated the Red Sox 4-3 to advance to 22-22. The win gives them a 2-1 series lead over the Sox in this four game affair.
Pitcher Taj Bradley took the mound for his second start of the season. The young right hander had another solid performance, going five innings allowing two runs and striking out six.
The Red Sox wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in this one, with Jarren Durran scoring on a sacrifice fly from Connor Wong to get off to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
The Rays would fail to put together a response until the top of the fourth inning, when Jonathan Aranda would score on an infield error by Garrett Cooper to tie the game up at one.
It wouldn’t take long for the Sox to respond, with Wilyer Abreu smashing a 406 foot home run to right field to make it 2-1 Boston.
Boston would put together another huge threat in the bottom of the fifth, loading the bases against Bradley with two outs, however a huge strikeout from the young starter would keep the deficit to just one.
That takes us to the top of the sixth, which would be a huge one for the Rays, putting up three runs and taking the lead starting with an RBI single from Jose Siri to tie the game at two.
Yandy Diaz would follow that up with another RBI single to score to more runs and make it 4-2.
The Red Sox would cut that lead in half in the next frame with a Rafael Devers home run to make it 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth.
This is where the Rays bullpen took over the game and smothered Boston’s bats, shutting them out for the final three innings with five strikeouts and just one runner in scoring position, securing a 4-3 win for the Rays to get back to .500.
The Rays have one more game against the Red Sox in this series before their road trip up north to Toronto. First pitch on Thursday for the series finale is set for 7:10.
