After looking a total disaster all the way through June, the Red Sox will now enter the All-Star Break with three straight series wins having clinched their set against the Rays with a 4-1 win Saturday afternoon.
This one actually got off to a really shaky start. Rick Porcello wasn't really getting what he wanted from the Rays today, as Tampa seemed determined to get under just about everything he threw to them. And when those pitches were left too high, like a fastball to Brad Miller that stayed over the plate in the first, they hit them a ways. Miller's fly ball got out for a solo shot to put the Sox down 1-0, and Evan Longoria nearly followed suit behind him. Even when Porcello kept it down, though, the Rays seemed to put it in the air more often than not.
Thankfully, after that first inning, Porcello did start to keep it down, and while the Rays were able to lift the ball, they weren't able to put all that much on it. There was a big double from Corey Dickerson to start the second, but Porcello struck out two of the next three batters to keep him from scoring, and kept the Red Sox nice and close even as the offense put up zeroes in the first three frames.
In the fourth, the Sox got their one big hit of the game from Xander Bogaerts. With Dustin Pedroia on via a walk, Bogaerts got a middle-middle fastball from Matt Moore and destroyed it. The ball was barely even on the way down when it cleared everything in left and hurtled into the streets of Boston to make it 2-1.
The rest of Boston's runs came in the fifth, but were more a gift from the Rays than anything else. Sandy Leon would reach on a generously scored infield single when Evan Longoria's throw to first pulled Logan Morrison off the bag, and Mookie Betts got all the way to second when Steven Souza ran down a sharply hit fly ball to center, then let the ball bounce right off his glove. Dustin Pedroia gave the Red Sox the one really legitimate hit of the inning, driving in both runners, which was made all the more important as David Ortiz, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Aaron Hill went strikeout, strikeout, pop-up to keep the inning from getting out of hand.
Porcello, though, didn't need any more runs. The Rays had threatened again with a leadoff double in the top of the fifth, and Porcello had responded with another two strikeouts and a hot ground ball which Xander Bogaerts handled expertly for the final out. And when they once again set themselves up to score in the sixth on a pair of singles, he got one of the few really easy ground balls of his night, once again to Bogaerts, and this time good for two outs to end the threat.
The Sox would turn to the bullpen after seven despite Porcello still coming in shy of 100 pitches, and there was at least a bit of concern when Koji Uehara entered in the ninth after Matt Barnes pitched a scoreless eighth. Koji would give up a ringing single to Evan Longoria to start the frame, and only avoided letting the tying run come to the plate when he was gifted a strikeout call on a 3-2 pitch to Steve Souza that was clearly outside. But with the free out in his pocket, Uehara got Corey Dickerson to swing over one of his better splitters on the day for the last out.
Not the best game you'll see the Red Sox play, but in June, nothing short of their A+ game seemed capable of producing any wins, perhaps in large part because they were so rarely capable of producing a B- effort like this one instead of an absolute F. You don't always have to be the best, just better than the other guys. And sometimes all that requires is a couple players turning in good performances and nobody else screwing up too badly.
The Sox have themselves three series wins in a row. Tomorrow they'll try to add a sweep to that and really let themselves go home (or, for a good handful of guys, to San Diego) feeling good about things.