Monday night’s game did everything to erode all of the confidence Red Sox fans built up after the great win against the Yankees on Sunday. The last place Rays came to Fenway with their best player on the DL and having had one of their top projected RBI guys suddenly retire. That didn’t stop them from jumping all over Dice-K and scoring more than two touchdowns against the Sox pitchers.
It all started with Johnny Damon who was greeted with a round of boos by the Fenway faithful. His response was a line drive homer on the first pitch he saw. Damon had a huge smile on his face as he rounded the bases, the sinister grin was a sign of things to come. In the second inng the Rays put up 6 more runs on Matsuzaka. The boo birds were flying for Dice-K whose night ended after failing to get an out in the third inning. He gave up 7 earned runs on 8 hits and 2 walks in his two innings of work.
Things didn’t go much better for Wake who was tagged for 5 runs in 3 1/3 innings. Aceves stopped the bleeding for a couple of innings before Wheeler welcomed back the hit parade. Wheeler gave up 4 earned runs in his one inning of work.
The offense did get five runs but that was not nearly enough. Ellsbury homered and both Gonzalez and Ortiz tripled. Crawford looked like he was starting to come out of his slump with two hits.
Red Sox 5 Rays 16 BOX SCORE
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