‘07 DRays and ‘65 Bosox split

8/16-8/17 - Fenway Park
GAME 1 - DRays 7, Red Sox 5
Tied at 5 all after regulation the road Rays jumped on Bosox reliever Jay Ritchie for 2 runs in the top of the 10th.  After Carl Crawford grounded out the Rays were treated to 3 consecutive singles by Carlos Pena, Dmitri Young and Ty Wigginton.  The latter scored Pena to make it 6-5.  Dick Radatz had go come in from the pen and got Navarro to line out to second, but Brendan Harris fought off an overpowering fastball to flare it into right center to score Young and put the Rays up by 2.  Alberto Reyes would get the Bosox out in the bottom half of the inning to notch his second save.  Scott Dohmann would nab the win after facing just 1 batter in the bottom of the 9th.

GAME 2 - DRays 21, Red Sox 6
No this wasn't the Buccaneers vs the Patriot for those of you just glancing at the score.  Tampa jumped all over Boston starter Bill Monbouquette, who never made it out of the first inning.  "Mombo" was tagged for 5 runs (4 earned) before he was given the yank.  Tough to pick an offensive star here, but if I had to I'd go with Carl Crawford who was 3 for 7 with 6 RBI's and 2 runs scored.  Dmitri Young was 4 for 6 and had 4 RBI's himself, so the choice was very hard.  Tampa sent 58 batters to the plate and had 25 hits.  Scott Kazmir (2-0, 1.80) got the win for the Rays.  He exited after 5 innings, so that his inning count could be conserved.  Strangely the only 2 homers hit in the game were off Red Sox bats (Tony C and Yaz).

8/18-8/19 - Tropicana Field
GAME 3 - Red Sox 13, DRays 2
Turnabout is fair play and today was Boston's turn to put on an offensive fireworks show, not that starter Jim Lonborg needed the help.  Lonborg gave up just 1 earned run in 8 2/3 innings of work before running out of gas.  James Shields and Brian Stokes combined to give up 10 of Boston's 13 run allotment.  Every Red Sox had at least 1 hit.  Felix Mantilla had 3 hits in 5 trips to the plate and 2 RBI.  Lenny Green trumped him by going 4 for 5 with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored.  The game was actually a 1-0 game until Boston busted loose with 4 in the 6th, 3 in the 7th, 2 in the 8th and for good measure 3 more in the 9th.

GAME 4 - Red Sox 9, DRays 7
Combined both pitching staffs in this series has less arms than the Venus deMilo.  Game 4 saw a combined 16 run on 29 hit effort.  Down 7-5 after 6 innings of play the Bosox exploded for 4 huge scores in the top of the 7th off Case Fossum and Lucas Glover.  After Tony Conigliaro led off with a double Lee Thomas and Lenny Green made two quick outs.  Catcher Bob Tillman singled home Tony C with 2 out and Dalton Jones walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd for Felix Mantilla, who executed a perfect hit and run to score both runners.  On the throw to the plate Mantilla snuck into second which allowed him to score a key insurance run when Rico Petrocelli singled to right.  Dick Radatz once again tossed a scoreless 9th for his 4th save of the season.