High Five! Rays Sweep Reeling Red Sox With 5-Run Explosion in 7th Inning
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Even though the Tampa Bay Rays have been pushing around the Boston Red Sox lately, Rays hitters have good memories.
Or nightmares.
The last time Boston beat Tampa was seven games ago in the series, back on July 4 at Fenway Park. The Rays got shut out that day, losing 4-0 in a game where they had no clue what to do with Boston pitcher Kutter Crawford, who pitched 5 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Fast forward to Thursday night at Tropicana Field, and Crawford was nasty again. He had cruised through six innings, allowing just three hits. He went back out to start the seventh inning, something he had never done before in his big-league career, sporting a three-run lead.
And the something totally unexpected happened. Crawford gave up three straight hits — a double by Ji-Man Choi, a single from Christian Bethancourt and an RBI double from Josh Lowe — and his night was done.
But the Rays were nowhere near finished.
They kept piling on usually reliable reliever John Schreiber, who hadn't allowed a run since May 27, scoring five runs in the inning to grab a 5-4 win, sweeping the four-game series with the Red Sox. Taylor Walls had the big hit, a two-run single with two strikes to greet Schreiber, and Yandy Diaz added a two-run double to right-center that turned out to be critically important, too. Schreiber took the loss, his first since Aug. 16, 2020.
"I just tried to choke up and play pepper with it,'' Walls said. "Just literally swing as easy as possible and stay on top of it, that was really the only approach I had going into that.
"Hits were contagious that inning. Everybody just kept rallying and having good at bats, not trying to do too much. Up and down the lineup, everyone just took a breath and didn't try to do too much.''
Taylor Walls talks about his two-hit, two-RBI night after the @RaysBaseball finished off a four-game sweep of the Red Sox on Thursday night. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/14fMCeJtu8
— Bally Sports Sun: Rays (@BallyRays) July 15, 2022
Drew Rasmussen started for the Rays and pitched well early, allowing just one hit in the first three innings. Rafael Devers got him for a solo home run to lead off the fourth — his 20th homer of the season — but then Rasmussen retired his next seven batters, taking him into the sixth inning.
He gave up a one-out single to Jarren Duran, but then got Devers to ground out for the second out of the inning. It looks like he was going to get out of the inning when he got an early 0-2 count on J.D. Martinez, but then he threw four straight balls to walk him.
Xander Bogaerts made him pay for the miscues, hitting a two-run double to left-center to give the Red Sox a 3-0. Rasmussen allowed just four hits, and had five strikeouts. He threw 89 pitches.
Tommy Romero, who was called up earlier in the day when Shane Baz was put on the injured list, pitched a perfect seventh inning and benefitted from the Rays' explosion in the bottom of the inning to pick up his first career win. He was the 20th Rays pitcher to get a win this season, the most in the majors.
Brooks Raley got two outs in the eighth for Tampa Bay, and Jason Adam got the last out. Jalen Beeks came on to pitch the ninth, and gave up a leadoff single to Bogaerts and an RBI double to Alex Verdugo, but he worked through the trouble, getting Christian Vazquez to pop out. After a walk, he struck out Bobby Dalbec and then Jeter Downs grounded out to Walls at shortstop to end the game.
It was Beeks' first save of the season. He is the eighth different Tampa Bay pitcher to earn a save this season, also an MLB high.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he had no concerns sending Crawford back out for the seventh, considering how successful he had been against the Rays.
“Bullpen-wise we were limited," Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He was throwing the ball well so we rolled the dice with him. It was kind of like Kutter, Schreiber, (closer) Tanner (Houck), but is just didn't happen.”
Attendance was just 11,998. For the four-game series, the total turnout was just 43,728 fans. Last week, more than 100,000 fans attended the three-game series at Fenway Park.
The Red Sox are now 2-8 against the Rays this season, and are 0-9-1 in series against AL East teams. It was the third time they'd been swept by the Rays in a four-game series, once in 2020 and the first time in 2010. Their six straight losses to the Rays ties a series record.
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Tom Brew is the publisher of Inside The Rays, and has been with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation network for three years. He is an award-winning writer and editor who has spent most of his four-decade career at the Tampa Bay Times, Indianapolis Star and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. He has written four books.