Red Sox Sweep First Place Rays 11-3

The Boston Red Sox completed a road trip in which they played 11 of 13 games on the road. The teams they played are good ones yet Boston emerged with a 9-4 record and crept to within 5 1/2 games of the Tampa Bay Rays. They beat the Rays last night by a score of 11-3 with much of the power supplied by Adrian Beltre. He had 2 home runs and a triple, knocking in 6 (!) runs, matching his career high. His defense at third base was stellar yet again. He said this after the game...

“It was huge, because we remember that they did the same to us at home. They swept us at home. We came in here and thought that we could at least get the series. We played pretty good, especially our pitching staff. They were the ones that kept us in the game and gave us the opportunity to win.’’

Pedey Pedroia spoke of the team's resurgence...

“We know we’re good. We just have to sustain it over 162 games. We started out real slow and everyone kind of panicked. But we have confidence we’re going to win a lot of games, and hopefully the way we’ve been playing continues for a long time.”

A long, long time. That sounds good to me. John Lackey was not at his best but he allowed only 2 runs and pitched 6 1/3 innings. His control was a little off, though. He walked 4 Raymen. The bullpen finished it all up with the third TB run scoring in the ninth, given up by Nelson. By then, the game was over and the Red Sox were soon to be jetting home to Boston to play the Kansas City Royals 4 times, starting tonight. Here are the series matchups...

5/27/2010 ** KC 7:10 PM ET FxKC/NESN ** Matsuzaka (3-1) vs. Bannister (3-3)
5/28/2010 ** KC 7:10 PM ET FxKC/NESN ** Wakefield (1-2) vs. Davies (3-3)
5/29/2010 ** KC 7:10 PM ET FxKC/NESN ** Buchholz (6-3) vs. Greinke (1-5)
5/30/2010 ** KC 1:35 PM ET FxKC/NESN ** Lester (5-2) vs. Meche (0-4)

Let's win all 4 and continue this excellent play. I hope every one of you have a terrific weekend as we get ready for the long holiday weekend. Oh, believe it or not, yesterday afternoon's back yard temperature here was 98 (!!!!) degrees (in the shade). That provided fuel for what happened last night. I was awakened by vivid lightning, wind and heavy rain as a line of thunderstorms floated south from western Massachusetts into the humid and warm air. There were, at one time, more than 30,000 powerless Connecticutions. Half have had their power restored. Our power lines here where I live are underground so I never lost ANYTHING. Well, maybe my youth but that didn't happen overnight, not by a long shot.

Don't forget to click on this post's title for Red Sox coverage WEEI style. There's a fascinating interview with Jerry Remy who hints that this might be Big Papi's last year with the Sox. I certainly hope not. He's been hot this month. As always, BE WELL. See ya...soon.