It was an old fashioned butt kicking by the Boston Red Sox on Monday night. In the first game of a huge three game series against the Red Sox, the Tampa Bay Rays did not come to play and were hammered by the score of 13-5. This is not the way the Rays wanted to kick off the big series.
Starting pitcher Scott Kazmir was rocked as gave up four home runs, six hits, and nine runs in just three innings of action. It was one of those outings that Kazmir will just have to forget as it was simply bad. Mitch Talbot wasn’t much better after he came in for Kazmit. Talbot gave up two more runs and and four runs. In total the Red Sox hit six home runs off of the Rays pitching staff.
The Rays hit home runs of their own, however it was just three compared to the Red Sox six. Justin Ruggiano and Dan Johnson both hit two-run home runs late in the game while Akinori Iwamura hit a solo home run in the third inning. There just wasn’t any other offense besides those three home runs.
The Rays now need to bounce back and pick up a victory on Tuesday to regain their lead in the division.
