The Red Sox were sitting on a 1-0 lead in the ALDS against the Rays, but if they were going to push it to 2-0 they would need to go through Rays' ace David Price. John Lackey actually got some run support as they batted around David Price as the Sox rolled to their 2nd win of the series. Now the Sox head to the Trop in hopes of getting the final win to advance on to the ALCS.
The Sox bats took no time in getting to David Price last night. In the first inning Ellsbury got on, stole second, made it to 3rd when Molina threw the ball into centerfield and then Pedey hit a sac fly to get him home. That was followed by David Ortiz hitting a ball into the Sox bullpen for a solo HR. There was no way that Wil Myers could get to that one! Sox 2-0. The Rays got one of those runs back in the 2nd when Delmon Young hit a sac fly to score Zobrist. Sox 2-1. Lackey didn't look like he had his best stuff and seemed pretty rusty from having 10 days rest, but he trooped through. In the 3rd the Sox bats added some more runs to the board when Ells hit an RBI double and Pedey hit into an RBI fielder's choice. Sox 4-1. The Sox added one more run in the 4th when Stephen Drew hit an RBI triple. Sox 5-1. Lackey found a little bit of trouble in the 5th when he gave up a 2 run RBI double to Loney to have the Rays within 2. Sox 5-3. The Sox got a wee bit of breathing room when Pedey hit an RBI double in the 5th to score Ells. Sox 6-3. Lackey took the mound in the 6th, but he wouldn't last the inning. Lackey gave up an RBI single to Escobar and he was done for the night. Lackey clearly wanted to stay in the game, but Farrell left it to the bullpen. Lackey's line for the night was 95 pitches, 5.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 BB and 6 Ks. It wasn't the best, but since Lackey actually got run support it was good enough to be in a line for the win.
Craig Breslow came into the game to finish off the 6th. Breslow got the 2 outs he needed and was out of the inning. Breslow came back out for the 7th and with some great defense behind him he got out of trouble with a sick inning ending double play. Breslow was done for the night and Tazawa came into the game for the 8th inning. Taz followed suit and pitched a scoreless inning, also helped by an inning ending double play. Sox 6-4. David Price was still on the mound in the bottom of the 8th and David Ortiz couldn't have been happier. Papi hit his 2nd homer of the night off of Price, this time to right field. Sox 7-4. David Price would end up complaining later that Papi watched the homer too long before trotting around the bases. It sounds like a lot of sour grapes to me. Price was done for the night and left the mound having given up 7 runs. David Price would have to wait for another day, hopefully another year in search of his first postseason win as a starter. Koji Uejara came out and pitched his usual, awesome scoreless 9th. Koji got 2 Ks and then got Myers to groundout for the win.
The Red Sox now head to the Trop with a 2-0 lead in hopes of finishing the Rays off and heading to the ALCS.
Red Sox 7 Rays 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Lackey (1-0) LP: Price (0-1) SV: Uehara (1)
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