The Boston Red Sox Edged over the Tampa Bay Rays in the 10th inning. Betts just kept up his hitting streak to score the final run with a double, and single by Holt. The Sox had won it 4-3. But how did they get there? Let’s go back all the way to the 2nd inning.

In the 2nd, Napoli led off by walking. On the next at bat, De Aza doubled to score Napoli, and give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. He advanced to third on a ground out by Blake Swihart. Jackie Bradley Jr., who came up after working a lot harder to hit in Pawtucket, hit a sac fly and De Aza came home. 2-0 Red Sox after just two innings. Pretty amazing.

The Rays struck in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Logan Forsythe singled, then Asdrubal Cabrera did the same, and Forsythe was on third base. Marc Krauss, a new first baseman for the injury struck Rays, doubled to score Forsythe and send Cabrera to third. 2nd and 3rd, 2-1 Sox. They blew the inning with two RISP.

The Red Sox scored again in the 4th inning. Napoli walked again, then Blake Swihart singled. 1st and 3rd, 1 down. Then, Napoli and Swihart attempted a double steal. Swihart was out at 2nd, but Napoli, who isn’t a base stealer, made it home and it was 3-1 Red Sox.   It was a pitchers duel for the next couple innings, between Porcello and Alex Colome. Napoli walked a third time solo in the 6th, and stole another base!!! Was he changing his hitting style? Was he becoming a base stealer despite the fact he’s slower than most? So many questions.

In the bottom of the 6th, the Rays tied the game. Joey Butler singled, and Longoria then doubled to make it 2nd and 3rd. David DeJesus hit a sac fly to score Butler. 3-2. Then Porcello had blown things for a long while when he threw a wild pitch that Longoria scored on.   He was pulled from the game in the 7th, and Tommy Layne came in on relief. Kevin Jepsen also relieved Colome to begin the 7th. Both pitchers pitched 6 full innings, giving up three runs. Pitcher after pitcher came in for the Sox, from Tazawa to Breslow to Ogando, but it was very quiet, and nobody gave up any more runs.

In the 10th, it was still 3-3, but not for long. Off Steven Geltz, Mookie Betts doubled, and Brock Holt saved the game for the Sox after Porcello’s collapse with an RBI single to score Betts. The Red Sox took a 4-3 lead. Koji Uehara earned the save with a 1-2-3 10th for the Rays lineup, and the Red Sox went on to win. See my post on today’s 4:00 game as Wade Miley faces Rays elite ace Chris Archer.

Also, try out MLB Connect. It’s a fun game where you connect four correctly predicted plays. You get automatic tiles, or you can swap them out for your own predictions chosen from multiple categories, and you play live during any baseball game. It’s a free app and for me, it’s replaced MLB PrePlay. You will see me as Andrew if you play during the Red Sox game today.