Record sellout crowd sees Sox gain ground
Jon Lester pitched into the eighth inning, Jason Bay homered in a three-run first and the surging Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-0 in Boston on Monday night to move within a half-game of the struggling A.L. East leaders.
Playing before their 456th straight regular-season sellout crowd, a major league record, the Red Sox are the closest they’ve been to the division lead since July 23.
Boston improved to 6-1 in its last seven games while Tampa Bay is 1-6 in that same stretch after losing its fourth straight. The Rays were shut out for the second consecutive day for the first time this year, having lost 1-0 at Toronto on Sunday.
They dropped to 0-7 at Fenway Park this season and could fall out of first place tonight in the second game of the three-game series. The teams wrap up their season series with three games at Tampa Bay starting next Monday.
Lester (14-5) matched his season high with nine strikeouts. He allowed six hits and three walks in 72/3 innings.
Before the game, Red Sox owners John Henry and Tom Werner, president Larry Lucchino and players greeted some of the 37,662 fans who attended the record-breaking sellout. The streak began on May 15, 2003.
The Cleveland Indians set the previous record from June 1995 to April 2001 at Jacobs Field.
A.L. highlights
Angels 12, Yankees 1: At Anaheim, Calif., Ivan Rodriguez and Torii Hunter were ejected after a bench-clearing scuffle in the sixth inning, when the Angels scored six runs on the way to a victory over New York that reduced Los Angeles’ magic number to two for clinching the A.L. West title.
Brandon Wood hit two homers, and Vladimir Guerrero and Sean Rodriguez also connected for the Angels, who own the best record in baseball at 87-56.
N.L. highlights
Phillies 8, Marlins 6: At Philadelphia, Jayson Werth hit a three-run homer, Jimmy Rollins had three hits and three steals as the Phillies closed within 11/2games of the N.L. East-leading Mets.
Reds 5, Brewers 4: At Milwaukee, the Reds’ Jeff Keppinger’s double capped a three-run, ninth-inning rally off Brewers closer Salomon Torres.
With the loss, Milwaukee’s lead in the N.L. wild-card race shrunk to three games over the Phillies with 18 games remaining.
Padres 4, Dodgers 0: At San Diego, Adrian Gonzalez hit a two-run homer off former teammate Greg Maddux as the last-place Padres snapped Los Angeles’ eight-game winning streak.
Giants 6, Diamondbacks 2: At San Francisco, Tim Lincecum struck out nine, Bengie Molina hit a three-run homer and the Giants sent Arizona to its fourth straight defeat.