Magic on the Rays' side with this one
RAYS 8, RED SOX 5: David Ortiz does damage, but not enough to stop a team effort that keeps Boston out of first.
By MARC TOPKIN
Published August 6, 2006
ST. PETERSBURG - The Devil Rays went back-and-forth with Boston's David Ortiz throughout Saturday's game. But when all the shifting stopped, the Rays ended up with 8-5 victory that kept the Red Sox a full game behind the first-place Yankees.
Ortiz was in the middle of the action all night.
He made a fourth-inning error at first base that led to four Rays runs. He hit a fifth-inning groundball to rightfield that the Rays used their defensive shift to turn into a double play. He rolled a bunt perfectly down the third-base line to beat the shift for an eighth-inning single in advance of Manny Ramirez's home run that drew the Sox to within 5-4. He singled in a run in the ninth to cut the margin to 8-5.
But the Rays, who had lost a major-league high 37 times after leading, used a team effort to score an impressive victory. They took an early 5-1 lead, hung on as the Sox closed to 5-4, extended the margin to 8-4 in the eighth, then hung on again as the Sox pulled to within 8-5 and threatened in the ninth, all before a lively Tropicana Field crowd of 30,603.
Casey Fossum held the Sox to three hits and an unearned run over six strong innings, and Shawn Camp, Jon Switzer and Brian Meadows followed. Greg Norton and Josh Paul each had three hits, with Paul's two-run double in the eighth a key hit.
Third baseman B.J. Upton made his first two errors since rejoining the team Tuesday - muffing an infield bouncer and making an errant throw - but also made a spectacular diving stop and throw to end the third inning, and turned a double play as part of the Ortiz shift to end the fifth.
The Rays took an 8-4 lead into the ninth, but a double by Mark Loretta and a single by Ortiz off Meadows made it 8-5, and a single by Ramirez and a walk to Kevin Youkilis loaded the bases with the go-ahead run at the plate. But Meadows got new Red Sox Javy Lopez to ground into a routine 6-4-3 double play.
Rays leadoff man Damon Hollins opened the fourth with a sharp grounder that caromed off starter David Wells' left foot and into leftfield for the Rays' first hit, and they didn't stop until they rapped four more, three straight with two outs, and scored four runs.
An error by Ortiz, making his 10th start of the season at first, allowed birthday boy Carl Crawford to reach. Jorge Cantu, who had been in a 3-for-30 skid, followed with an RBI single, though Crawford was thrown out after too big of a turn at second.
After Jonny Gomes walked with two outs, the Rays followed with consecutive run-scoring singles by Greg Norton, B.J. Upton and Josh Paul to take a 4-1 lead.
The Rays' radical defensive shift didn't do much good against Ortiz on Friday when he hit two home runs in Boston's 3-2 win, taking advantage of misplaced pitches by starter James Shields and reliever Seth McClung.
Ortiz scoffed at the alignment - which features three infielders in a triangle formation between first and second and occasionally four outfielders and has been copied by other teams - saying the Rays had made a "bad decision."
But they stuck with it, and they got mixed results on Saturday.
With one out and a man on first in the fifth, Ortiz grounded a ball that normally would have been a single to right. But second baseman Jorge Cantu was positioned perfectly, then threw to second, where third baseman B.J. Upton turned what for those scoring at home was a 4-5-3 double play.
Ortiz, however, used it to his advantage in the eighth.
After reliever Jon Switzer fell behind 2-and-0, Upton dropped into leftfield, leaving the left side of the infield unguarded. Ortiz squared around and bunted the ball perfectly down the third-base line - a maneuver Rays manager Joe Maddon said he would welcome given the alternatives - picking up his third bunt single of the season.
What made it hurt was that Manny Ramirez followed by rocketing a 3-2 Switzer pitch over the left-centerfield wall for a two-run homer, trimming the Rays lead to 5-4. It was the 39th homer Ramirez has hit against the Rays, the most of any player. And it was his 24th at Tropicana Field, more than all but three players, including those who played for the Rays. Only Aubrey Huff (69), Fred McGriff (52) and Greg Vaughn (26) have hit more.