Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms in DRBland. The Rays were in Boston, where everyone was wearing a touch of pink to wrap up the weekend series. The Rays were first in the AL East by a wee little percentage point and hoping to push ahead and claim it properly this week. To deal with Boston, the Rays were relying on Nick Martinez on the mound, while the Red Sox had Payton Tolle up.
The Rays wasted little time getting on the board, as Junior Caminero hit a one-out home run in the top of the first inning. Two outs followed, but the Rays had the initial lead.
In the home half of the inning, with one out, Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch to get a free bag. Two outs followed, though, keeping the Red Sox scoreless. Contreras was apparently not feeling great after being hit by that pitch, though, and he left the game between inning, being replaced by Andruw Monasterio.
Ryan Vilade singled to start the second, but he tried to leg it out into a double and was snagged at second base. Two outs followed, ending the inning in short order. In the home half, Mickey Gaspar and his incredible mustache got a one-out double, but the Red Sox ended up leaving him stranded.
The Rays got riled up in the third. Nick Fortes got a leadoff single, then advanced to second on a sac bunt by Taylor Walls. Chandler Simpson singled to score Fortest, with some thanks to an ugly Trevor Story deflection, that let the ball dribble out into left. Jarren Duran threw home for some weird reason instead of to second, and Simpson was able to safely wind up at second after all was said and done. Story was charged with an error. With two outs, Ben Williamson singled, bringing Simpson home. Yandy Diaz then singled as well, putting runners at the corners, but no additional runs scored.
Caleb Durbin started the home half by getting hit by a pitch, the second of the game for Martinez. They might want to be careful of that, things got zesty in a Red Sox game last week when they thought those HBPs were intentional. Durbin then attempted to steal second and was caught. With two outs, Monasterio doubled, but the Sox left him stranded.
In the fourth, Cedric Mullins got a leadoff single, then tried to steal second and got caught in a very lengthy rundown. Two outs followed. Masataka Yoshida singled to start the bottom of the fourth. The Rays got three outs in a row to follow that, though.
The Rays went 1-2-3 for the first time this game in the fifth. With two outs in the home half, Duran singled. Monasterio singled right behind him, putting two men on, a pop-out ended the threat and the inning.
Tolle’s day was done after five, and he was replaced by Zack Kelly. Kelly gave up a leadoff walk to Williamson. Then, with one out, a pinch-hitting Jonathan Aranda singled. That was it for Kelly, who was then replaced by Tyler Samaniego. Cedric Mullins put down a sacrifice bunt, scoring Williamson and extending the Rays’ lead. A lineout ended the inning, but we love to see insurance runs.
In the bottom of the inning, Trevor Story got a one-out double. Gasper then singled, bringing Story home and making the team extra-grateful for that bonus run. Martinez got the second out of the inning and then Kevin Cash headed out to make the switch. Martinez’s final line for the game was 5.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K on 80 pitches. A solid outing for him, with some command issues, but otherwise really good results. Kevin Kelly replaced Martinez and collected the final out of the inning.
Justin Slaten was the new Red Sox pitcher for the seventh and he got the Rays out in order. The Rays returned the favor by getting the Red Sox out 1-2-3 in the home half.
Greg Weissert came out of the pen for the Sox in the eighth and faced only the minimum three batters. Ben Williamson got a one-out walk, his second of the game, and then advanced to second on a Yandy Diaz groundout. That was it for Weissert. Jovani Morán came in to replace him and got the final out of the inning. The Rays also dipped into their bullpen in the eighth, bringing out Garrett Cleavinger and after a pretty long inning, he did manage to get the Sox out in order.
In the ninth, Jonny DeLuca got a one-out walk. Nick Fortes then hit into a double play to end the inning, and with that, the Rays would have to hope their three-run lead was enough to hang on for the win. Bryan Baker came in and gave up a leadoff double to Gasper. Marcelo Mayer then walked. Baker was clearly having some issues with command, and it couldn’t happen at a worse time. Caminero made an incredible toss over to first for the second out of the inning but it was within millimeters, so Boston challenged, which was reasonable, but the call was upheld and the game was down to the final out. That last out came on a flyout from Duran to end the game and the Rays came away as both game and series winners.
