Boston @ Tampa Bay preview
Tropicana Field
Last Meeting ( Apr 19, 2010 ) Tampa Bay 8, Boston 2
A day after defeating the best team in the National League, the Boston Red Sox now hope to tame the American League's best.
The Red Sox visit the Tampa Bay Rays for the first of a three-game series at Tropicana Field Monday night. The Rays (32-12) sport the best record in baseball.
Getting back-to-back solid starting pitching performances, Boston won the final two games against the Philadelphia Phillies over the weekend. On Saturday, Daisuke Matsuzaka flirted with a no-hitter in Boston's 8-0 win.
On Sunday, the Red Sox hammered Roy Halladay on the way to an 8-3 victory. Tim Wakefield, starting for Josh Beckett who went on the 15-day disabled list last week with a back strain, went eight shutout innings to notch his first win of the season.
With the win, the Red Sox went three games over .500 for the first time all season. Boston has won five of its last six games and the Red Sox are getting healthier.
Jacoby Ellsbury started in center field for the second straight game and had a two-run single. And Mike Cameron seems ready to return to the club. He went 3-for-5 with a walk-off home run in a Double-A rehab assignment with Portland on Sunday.
Clay Buchholz (5-3) will start Monday's outing for Boston. Buchholz has won his last seven starts on the road dating back to the 2009 season. He is 2-2 lifetime against the Rays with a 2.01 ERA.
While the Red Sox have made up some ground on the rest of the AL East, they're still 8.5 games behind the Rays.
Tampa Bay swept Boston in a four-game series earlier in the year at Fenway Park. The Rays dominated the series by outscoring Boston, 24-9. The Red Sox have also struggled mightily in Tampa, losing 14 of their 18 games since the start of the 2008 season.
The Rays will start Wade Davis (4-3), who has been the least effective of the stellar starting staff thus far this season.
David Price notched the win in Tampa Bay's 10-6 win at Houston on Sunday. Price leads the American League with seven wins and entered the game with a league-leading 1.81 ERA, but he was roughed up by the weak-hitting Astros.
Houston scored four runs in the first inning off Price and knocked him out of the game after five innings.
But Tampa Bay gave him all the support it needed, paced by four RBIs from reserve catcher John Jaso and three more hits from sizzling Ben Zobrist. Both Jaso and Zobrist homered in the game.
Zobrist has hit in 16 of his last 18 games and has raised his average (.309) nearly 70 points in May.