The Tampa Bay Rays did just enough to pull out a win Tuesday night at Tropicana field against the Boston Red Sox. Tampa Bay scored three runs on seven hits, with the game-winning tally coming on Carl Crawford’s monster home run shot to lead off the eighth inning. In a game that was very much an offensive stalemate, Rays starter Jeff Niemann came out on top of Red Sox call-up Felix Doubront as the Rays won 3-2 and climbed to a game and a half above Boston in the American League East race; as of this writing, Tampa Bay sat a game and a half back of the first-place New York Yankees. Niemann picked up his seventh win and closer Rafael Soriano got his 23rd save on 24 opportunities.
So yesterday when I said Niemann would be facing a Triple-A scrub Tuesday night, I failed to realize that a Triple-A scrub in the Boston system meant he is an ace in the making. Okay, maybe not that great, but Doubront was impressive as he pitched against the Rays for five and two-thirds innings; Tampa Bay seemed to figure out his timing after going through the rotation. Once Doubront showed the Rays what he had, it was just a matter of time before they jumped on one. In the bottom of the third inning, C John Jaso singled and moved into second base on a wild pitch. He then scored on Jason Bartlett’s base hit to establish a fragile 1-0 lead that everyone who’s seen this Boston team knew would not hold up.
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.