ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Extra innings have not gone well the past two games for the Tampa Bay Rays.
Advertisement
“I wasn’t necessarily trying to make up for anything.
I’ve been consistent”, Masterson said. In the fifth, Brandon Guyer hit a ball that hit off of Masterson’s glove for a single. His second-inning double drove in Logan Forsythe, who had three hits off Porcello. He stopped abruptly when he realized centerfielder Kevin Kiermaier was backing up the play, but stumbled on his way back to the base and was easily tagged out. Left fielder David DeJesus hit a sacrifice fly to score Butler, with Longoria tagging up and advancing to third.
Holt followed with his game-winning hit off Steve Geltz (1-3).
“I felt like I threw the ball well…”, Barnes said. “That was the main thing”.
Masterson (3-2) allowed an unearned run and five hits over five innings to win for the first time since beating Baltimore at Fenway Park on April 20.
Closer Koji Uehara earned his 16th save. He then scored to tie the game on a wild pitch by Red Sox starter Rick Porcello.The Red Sox had the go-ahead run in scoring position – briefly – with one out in the seventh, as Betts stole second base with the throw sailing high into center field. In his first appearance in the majors since May 12, the righthander allowed five hits without a walk and struck out six.
” Obviously you want to win and help the team any way you can, and when you do not it’s frustrating”.
At this point, Napoli flipped out and got his money’s worth and manager John Farrell jawed with Gibson as well. “It’s certainly been a frustrating stretch but this is a positive start but I hope from here to keep getting better and get back to the right track”.
The seven innings marked his longest outing of the year. He struck out 10, but the Sox did enough damage to beat him.
Overall, the Rays have won five-straight games which the 26-year-old has started. “In order to win ballgames like that, we have to come with clutch hits in those big opportunities”.
Red Sox: LF Hanley Ramirez (left hand) missed his fourth straight game and has returned to Boston for an MRI…. Andriese’s two-seam fastball looked especially good, forcing 5 whiffs among the 19 times he threw it including a few swings where the Boston hitters looked completely out of it. Andriese now has a 1.71 ERA and a 14-2 strikeout to walk ratio in 21 innings since returning to the Rays after a stint at Triple-A.
The Rays bats were scintillating as well, knocking three home runs into the Tropicana Field bleachers. For De Aza, it was his third home run in four games, after having just three in his first 45 games of the season.
Advertisement
De Aza’s two-out bomb off of Jepsen decreased the deficit to 3-1, however the Rays responded nearly instantly with a homer of their own as third baseman Evan Longoria deposited another Barnes pitch into the seats in left center to lead off the bottom of the stanza, reinstating the three-run gap. Napoli was not given a stolen base on the play.
