Rays: 4, Red Sox: 1 - Rays’ end road trip on high note

Last day of the roadtrip, on what was supposed to be a day off, and the Rays are looking to win another series before heading home.

After a scoreless 1st inning, Rays looked to break out in front with their first run of the inning when Luke Raley hit a long fly ball to center field, but Enrique Hernandez robbed him at the CF wall to keep the Rays off the board.

If that wasn’t enough, the Red Sox robbed the Rays’ again in the top of the 3rd inning, again with 1 runner on, Francisco Mejia hit a fly ball that looked like it was going to wrap around the Pesky pole, but Alex Verdugo was able to run it down and get the out.

Rays opened the 5th inning with a Luke Raley double. Manuel Margot hit a single to left field and Raley booked it home for the 1st run of the game.

After a Vidal Brujan groundout to move Margot over to 3rd, Mejia singled to bring Margot home and give the Rays a 2-0 lead.

A Yandy Diaz & Wander Franco single loaded the bases with Josh Lowe up to bat. J Lowe grounded out, but was still able to get the run across for the Rays.

3-0 Rays after 4.5 innings. You would like to see a bit more production with the bases loaded, but we’ll take the runs where we can get them.

Shane McClanahan was absolutely crusing (again) in this outing. Red Sox batters didn’t get a runner to 2nd base until the 5th inning. The most trouble came in the bottom of the 6th inning, after a solo home run by Justin Turner gave the Red Sox their first run of the day.

Rafael Devers singled and Shane McClanahan fell behind Masataka Yoshida 3-1, but a sharp double play by Vidal Brujan got Shane & the Rays out of the jam.

Shane went 6.0 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB and 5 Ks, and Cash would go to the bullpen.

Rays got their 4th run of the game in the top of the 7th inning, with a Taylor Walls RBI walk

Calvin Faucher and Colin Poche came on relief for the 7th and 8th inning, and gave up a combined 1 Hit, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts, including this awesome strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play by Mejia that got Alex Cora ejected.

Here’s another angle, with the Cora ejection:

Jason Adam came on for the 9th inning and closed out the Red Sox with a ground out and back-to-back strikeouts.

A stable Rays’ bullpen? I could get used to that!

Rays win 4-1 and end the roadtrip 4-3!

Rays head back to Tropicana Field for a 6 game homestand against the Minnesota Twins, then the Texas Rangers.

First game is tomorrow at 6:40 PM with Louis Varland on the Twins taking on Zach Eflin for the Rays.