Last night was Opening Night for my Saturday night softball league on Hudson Street in Manhattan, so I was able to catch just the first four innings of yesterday's Red Sox-Rays game from Fenway.
I caught the remainder on my iPhone, and the news on it about the game was always good.
It looked like another day when Clay Buchholz just din't have it, as he gave up four Tampa Bay runs in the first, including a three-run homer by every Sox fan's favorite, noted "birther" and charter member of the Stupid Beard Club, Luke Scott. The Rays starter was Jeremy Hellickson, who shut out New York over eight innings in his last start. I wasn't feeling terribly confident.
But the Sox got the bats rolling, with Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Mike Aviles and Cody Ross belting home runs. Aviles replaced Jacoby Ellsbury as the leadoff man and had three hits.
Papi had four hits and 5 RBI. The game was tied 5-5 until the seventh, when the Sox scored three, and added five more for good measure in the eighth.
Buccholz allowed all five Rays runs, but Tampa Bay got only two hits after the third inning, and Buch, Franklin Morales and Alfredo Aceves silcening the Rays offense.
The Red Sox have scored 25 runs in the first two games of the series, after scoring just 22 in the first six games on the road.
