Boom went the dynamite! And that happened. That pretty much describes the roller coaster ride that was last night's game. Over the first seven innings the Rays offense managed just one run and struckout 11 times thanks to Jon Lester, who went six strong innings. Luckily for the Rays, Matt Garza was nearly as strong as he was in Game 7 of the ALCS. The crane went seven innings allowing two runs on two solo home runs. He walked two and struckout six.
The game really got going in the 8th inning when Evan Longoria hit a game tying solo home run. After Ben Zobrist reached base, Willy Aybar bunted a ball that was thrown away by Daniel Bard and all hell broke lose. Zobrist and Aybar both scored, but were ordered back to 2nd and 3rd thanks to rule 7.05 G aka the J.D. Drew throw your arms in the air and everyone freezes rule.
From there the Rays offense did everything it could to give the Red Sox the game, but apparently Boston didn't want it. The Rays had six at bats with the bases loaded in the 8th and 10th innings and ended up with 0 runs, 4 Ks, and 2 weak pop ups. Finally, in the 13th Evan Longoria had enough and figured he would not only be responsible for tying the game, but he would also win it. Longoria is turning into a Red Sox killer with seven home runs against Boston this season. The Sox are just 2-13 in their last 15 games at the Trop.
Hat tip to Brian Shouse, Grant Balfour, J.P. Howell, Dan "Big City" Wheeler and Lance Cormier for six innings of shutout baseball.
As Longoria said after the game, "I'm just glad this one is over." Last night's dramatic victory doesn't mean much if the Rays don't go out and win tonight. Coming off arguably his best start of the season, David Price will look to push the Rays to within three games of the wild card. Remember Game 7 David; dominate.