Mike Lowell and J.D. Drew combined for seven hits while everyone else in the lineup also had a hit contributing in the 16-10 come back win for the Boston Red Sox after being down 8-1 to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
Tim Wakefield who has historically shut down Tampa Bay in his career got knocked around only pitching for 3 innings, on 10 its, and seven runs. The Red Sox offense bailed Wakefield out of suffering the loss scoring four runs in the fourth, three in the fifth, six in the sixth, and two in the seventh mounting a great comeback.
Drew, David Ortiz, and Jacoby Ellsbury all homered, but the biggest homerun came off the bat of Dustin Pedroia in the sixth inning a solo shot that tyied the game at 9-9 and then the flood gates opened. Kevin Youkilis hit a bases clearing triple, Coco Crisp followed with an RBI double, and Ellsbury drove in the last RBI of the inning on a single to left scoring Crisp. The end result was a 14-9 lead after being down by seven runs.
With the win, Boston, kept the A.L. East Division lead at 5 games as the New York Yankees won earlier in the day beating the Toronto Blue Jays 9-2.
Earning the win for Boston was Bryan Corey (1-0) throwing a scoreless sixth inning, Jon Switzer (0-1) got the loss only pitching for 2/3 of an inning as he gave up two runs on the Pedroia solo homerun in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game and was charged with another the second run as he allowed Ortiz to reach base on a single before being taken out of the ball game. Ortiz later scored on the Youkilis bases clearing triple.
Andy Sonnanstine, the Devil Rays starting pitcher, received a no-decision pitching for 3 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits, and five runs on 80 pitches thrown in the outing.
The bright spots for the Devil Rays were Carlos Pena and Brendan Harris. Pena brought his homerun total to 39 on the season hitting a three-run homer off of Kyle Snyder in the fourth inning and Harris hit his 11th homer of the season off of Wakefield in the second inning. Akinori Iwamura and Josh Wilson turned in three hit performances and Dioner Navarro was 4-4 with three runs for Tampa.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!