Rays batter Red Sox again to take 3-1 lead

The Tampa Bay Rays batter the Red Sox 13-4 giving the Boston pitchers a torrid time to open a commanding 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series.

The Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon celebrates with Carlos Pena.

BOSTON // The Tampa Bay Rays battered the Red Sox 13-4 last night and gave the Boston pitchers a torrid time to open a commanding 3-1 lead in the American League Championship Series. The Rays, enjoying a breakout season after clinching the AL East title for the first time in its 11-year existence, surged ahead in the first inning. The first baseman Carlos Pena hit a two-run homer and the third baseman Evan Longoria claimed his fifth home run of the post-season to set up Tampa Bay's third straight win over the defending World Series champions and its second crushing victory at Boston's Fenway Park in two days.

"It was tough. Sitting through that wasn't a whole lot of fun," the Red Sox manager Terry Francona said after the match. "We have not had an answer for a lot of things." Francona turned to the bullpen early, removing the starting pitcher Tim Wakefield in less than three innings after a two-run homer by the designated hitter Willy Aybar and a hard base hit into left field by Dioner Navarro. All three home runs sailed over Fenway Park's infamous Green Monster fence and Aybar's landed outside the stadium.

"I know our bats have gotten better. They gotten a lot better obviously," the Tampa Bay manager Joe Madden told reporters. "It's kind of contagious. Just like the lack of something is contagious." The Red Sox catcher Kevin Cash put Boston on the board in the third inning with a solo home run off Rays' starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine, who threw 97 pitches over seven innings and allowed just six hits.

Tampa Bay widened their lead in the fifth inning when Ayber scored Carl Crawford with a shallow hit to left field. "It's astounding what they are doing at the plate right now," said Sonnanstine. Boston's World Series hopes and a shot at a third championship victory in five years faded further in a miserable sixth inning when Tampa Bay added five runs and kept the bases loaded through nearly their entire line-up of hitters.

Wakefield entered the game facing tough odds. The knuckleballer, 42, struggled against the Rays through the regular season, allowing 10 earned runs over 15 innings in just three appearances. Tampa Bay piled on two more runs in the top of the eighth when Crawford tripled off a hard fly ball to right-centre field that slipped out of the glove of outfielder JD Drew. *Reuters