The Tampa Bay Rays home field advantage that has gripped the Sox over the past two seasons would not prevail as the Sox finally won a game in the giant yurt called Tropicana Field. (Is it still a ‘field’ if it’s indoors?) Lester struck out 9 Rays in 6 innings and only allowed 2 runs. Wagner came in the 7th and got the side out in order, fanning two. Oki not so doki tonight, he faced 5 batters and they all got on, two of them scoring, closing the gap to 8-4. Enter Papelbon in a bases loaded, nobody out 8th inning. As he as done most of this season, he managed to get the next three batters out, stranding the three Rays Oki left out there. Pap came back to finish the 9th inning, earning his 33rd save.
The Sox knocked Sonnanstine out in the 5th inning before they even made an out, as the Sox built a 5-2 lead. Drew, Bay, and Youk all had home runs tonight. Four Sox had multi-hit games. They remain 6.5 GB the Yankees, but are 3.5 games ahead of Texas, and 6 games ahead of Tampa Bay in the wild card race.
Sox Win 8-4 BOX SCORE
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