Devil Rays vs Red Sox (8/20-8/22)

Game 1: Tim Wakefield continued his master of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays while he and the Red Sox collected another win. Wakefield tossed 7 shutout innings, only allowing 5 hits.

At the same time Wakefield was dominating Tampa Bay hitters, the Red Sox got out to an early 5-0 lead and coasted to victory. Dustin Pedroia, Coco Crisp, and Mike Lowell each collected 3 hits. Lowell had 3 RBIs on the night.

The Yankees lost to the Angels in the 10th inning on Monday night which helped the Red Sox move to 5 games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East.

Game 2: Unlike the last time the Red Sox faced Andy Sonnanstine, they didn't waste much time. The Red Sox scored 2 runs in the 1st inning and added another 5 runs in the 4th inning.

Varitek, Crisp, Lugo, Pedroia, Ortiz, and Ramirez made significant offensive contributions in the early going.

The Red Sox appeared to have the game in hand until Jon Lester ran into some trouble in the bottom of the 5th inning. Lester gave up a 3-run homer to Akinori Iwamura before the inning was over and the Devil Rays cut the Red Sox lead to 7-5. Lester came out to record an out and give up a hit in the 6th before Manny Delcarmen relieved him and induced a double play to end the inning. Manny Delcarmen and Okajima combined to pitch the 7th, then Okajima and Papelbon combined to finish the 8th. Papelbon also ended up pitching the 9th to close it out for the Red Sox. Papelbon struck out 3 batters in 1.1 innings pitched.

The win moves Boston to 5.5 games ahead of NYY (the lead will become 6 with a Yankee loss tonight or 5 with a Yankee win).

Game 3: The Red Sox lost a close 2-1 affair as Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched well for the Red Sox again but did not receive the necessary run support to come away with a victory.

The Red Sox had a slim lead until the 6th inning when Daisuke Matsuzaka made his only mistake of the game. The mistake resulted in a go ahead 2-run homerun by BJ Upton.

Timlin and Gagne pitched scoreless innings in relief, but the Red Sox were unable to come back from the deficit as they dropped the finale against the Devil Rays.

On Deck: The Red Sox are set to begin a 4-game series with the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night.