Red Sox rallies to wild victory
BOSTON: The Boston Red Sox recovered from 8-1 down in the fourth inning to secure a wild 16-10 victory against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Tuesday.
The Red Sox maintained its five-game lead on the winning and still-surging New York Yankees in the American League East. The rivals play a three-game series at Fenway Park this weekend.
"It's a win. That's what we set out to do," Red Sox manager Terry Francona told reporters. "It didn't start out looking real great. Down 8-1 is not really the formula. But I don't think we abandoned our approach which is easy to do when you get down a bunch and start rolling over."
The Devil Rays beat the Red Sox 1-0 on Monday and roared to a big lead against Tim Wakefield with Carlos Pena, a native of nearby Haverhill, Massachusetts, capping the run with a three-run homer after Wakefield departed in the top of the fourth.
The Red Sox then scored four in the bottom of the inning, three more in the fifth and sixth in the sixth, an uprising highlighted by a three-run triple by Kevin Youkilis. David Ortiz and J.D. Drew then hit solo homers in the seventh, Ortiz's 29th blast of the year and the struggling Drew's first at Fenway since April 22.
Mike Lowell had four of Boston's 20 hits and backup catcher Kevin Cash also drove in three runs as the Red Sox registered a season high for runs. Rookies Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia also homered as Boston hammered out 38 total bases.
Dioner Navarro had a career-high four hits and two RBIs for the Devil Rays, who collected 18 hits off seven Boston pitchers.
Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said his team lost games earlier this season in which the Rays had leads of 8-2.
Jason Giambi hit a grand slam and the visiting New York Yankees cruised to a 9-2 win against the Toronto Blue Jays behind six strong innings by rookie Phil Hughes. The Yankees have won six games in a row and lead the wild card race by four.
Agencies
(China Daily 09/13/2007 page24)
