Red Sox couldn’t knock first-place Rays off the beam in the East

BOSTON – For about half an inning, the Tampa Bay Rays were in real trouble.

A four-game losing streak had helped cut their lead in the A.L. East to one-half game, and the Boston Red Sox had just taken an eighth-inning lead that – as long as Jonathan Papelbon could protect it – would have knocked Tampa Bay from the top.

Then fresh-off-the-plane callup Dan Johnson homered to tie it and the Rays won on Tuesday night to hold on to first place. They followed that win with another on Carlos Pena’s three-run homer in the 14th inning Wednesday that gave them the edge in the three-game series.

“This team is obviously energized because of it and the ways we’ve won it,” Pena said.

The Rays left Boston for a weekend series with the New York Yankees, who have fallen out of playoff contention and into fourth place in the A.L. East. The Red Sox begin a four-game series with third-place Toronto today.

After failing to pass the Rays head to head, the Red Sox still have 17 games left to erase the remaining 2 1/2 -game cushion. And, if they don’t, there’s always the wild card: The Minnesota Twins trailed Boston by 5 1/2 games.

The Rays have spent more than half of this season in first place, briefly falling into second at the All-Star break.

Since then they have gone 32-18 and, despite losing Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria and Troy Percival in August, the Rays went 14-5 to finish the month.