Ugh, another frustrating, disheartening loss by the Tampa Bay Rays, once again being bashed by Boston, this time to the tune of 11-5. Regardless of how you interpret the Boston Red Sox starting Tim Wakefield over Clay Buchholz, punting the ball or no, they made it clear that they would not roll over for anyone, playoffs be damned.

TB got off to a good start, scoring in the first inning. John Jaso led off with a base hit and moved to second when Ben Zobrist reached on an error charged to Marco Scutaro. Jaso advanced to third base on a passed ball and managed to tag up and score on a sacrifice fly by Evan Longoria.

The Rays score three more in the second inning on a home run by B.J. Upton, who hit a solo shot in the stompin’ the night prior. Matt Joyce had doubled to lead off and Brad Hawpe singled behind him to score the other runs on Upton’s long ball.

Boston cut the lead in half in the home half of the second inning. David Ortiz walked to lead off, followed by a home run over the Green Monster from Adrian Beltre. After the Rays went down 1-2-3 in the top of the third, the Rehd Sahks tied the game with solo home runs from Scutaro and Ortiz. This game was clearly not going to be easy for the Rays.

This article appears in Sep 9-15, 2010.