Red Sox walk their way past Rays, 11-3
By Joe Meehan
The Red Sox fell in an early hole but then manufactured 11 unanswered runs, beating the Rays 11-3.
Anthony Ranaudo improved to 4-3 on the year, turning in his best outing in his last start of the season. Ranaudo went seven strong innings, allowing only two runs on six hits with two strikeouts and one walk.
After two first inning runs by the Rays, Garin Cecchini deposited his first career home run into the right field bullpen to cut the lead in half. Xander Bogaerts then added a sacrifice fly five batters later to tie it up 2-2.
The Sox then chased Rays’ starter Jake Odorizzi in the fourth after the first three batters reached, before teeing off on reliever Brandon Gomes for five runs to give them a five run lead.
That’s when it got wild.
Control problems plagued the Rays’ pitchers all night, as they walked nine batters between six pitchers. The problems were magnified in the sixth, as the Sox plated four runs behind one hit, one error, a hit-by-pitch and four walks.
For the Red Sox, it was another encouraging performance from some of their younger players, including Xander Bogaerts. He finished 2-4 with three RBI, raising his average to .239. He’s now hitting .308 in September after batting just .123 in August.
The two teams will finish off their season series tomorrow night at 7:10 pm. Allen Webster will get the start versus Jeremy Hellickson in a game that isn’t completely meaningless for the Red Sox; a win would give them a better record than the Bobby V team of 2012.