The Red Sox haven’t played the role of spoiler very well this season and the same would be the case last night. Jon Lester went from having a no hitter to giving up the lead in two at bats. Lester didn’t pitch badly, but he wasn’t lights out.
Lester kept putting up zeroes on the scoreboard until the 5th inning. The Sox gave Lester a teeny tiny lead in the 2nd inning when Nava hit an RBI single to score Salty. Sox 1-0. Lester hadn’t given up a hit as he took the mound for the 5th. Lester gave up hit first hit to Keppinger and then followed it by giving up back to back HRs to Pena and Francisco. Sox 1-3. How quickly the game changed. Lester pitched a scoreless 6th and he was done for the night. In the bottom of the 6th, Loney hit an RBI sac fly to score Pedroia. Sox 2-3.
In the 7th, Clayton Mortensen took the mound. He gave up a single to Keppinger and Bobby V went to get him in favor of Rich Hill. Rich Hill gave up a ground rule RBI double to Lobaton to give the Rays a 4-2 lead. Rich Hill was done for the night and Mark Melancon was in the game. Melancon finished the 7th and then pitched a scoreless 8th. Melancon got 4 outs and they were all by way of the strikeout. Breslow came out and pitched himself a nice scoreless 9th inning. The Sox weren’t able to rally against the Rays closer Rodney and fell 2-4.
This was the last game at Fenway for 2012 and this year the comforts of Fenway have not been to comfortable for the hometown boys. The Sox play 3 games against the Orioles and then finish off playing 3 games against the Yanks. They have one last chance to try to play spoiler and I sure hope they are able to.
Red Sox 2 Rays 4 BOXSCORE
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