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Tampa Bay\u2019s impressive 14-5 victory over the Red Sox on Tuesday pushed their lead in the Wild Card race to 7 1\/2 games.\u00a0 Also by winning, the Rays snapped a three-game losing streak while picking up a game on the Yankees, moving them within 1 1\/2 games of the American League East leaders.\u00a0 \u201cWinning beats losing,\u201d said manager Joe Maddon.\u00a0 The offense was led by outfielder Carl Crawford\u2019s career-high three doubles, as he compiled his Major League-leading eighth four-hit game of the season.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that with yesterday\u2019s win, the club has not tied last year\u2019s win total and the team is 265-197 since the start of the 2008 season.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 35-23 against division opponents (+610) and the total is 31-26 O\/U in those contests.\u00a0 The team will be playing its 15th game as a road underdog of +100 to +125, posting a 6-8 record in the previous 14 instances (-140).<\/p>\n
Rays starting pitcher Matt Garza is 14-7 with a 3.46 ERA in 28 games (27 starts) this season and the team has won his last four starts overall.\u00a0 In those games, he has allowed three runs and 20 hits over 27 1\/3 innings, while the club has outscored the opposition by a 20-4 margin.\u00a0 The right-hander has a solid 7-5 record and 3.66 ERA in 14 road starts, issuing 28 free passes and collecting 61 strikeouts in 93.1 frames.\u00a0 He has made nine starts since the All-Star break, compiling a 4-2 mark and 2.42 ERA compared to a 10-5 record and 4.05 ERA in 19 games (18 starts) during the first half.\u00a0 In 18 career games (17 starts) versus the Red Sox, Garza is 7-3 with a 3.48 ERA, including a 2-1 record and 4.11 ERA in six outings already in 2010.<\/p>\n
Boston initially had plans of starting young right-hander Clay Buchholz on three day\u2019s rest for the series finale, but manager Terry Francona announced following Tuesday\u2019s loss that veteran knuckleballer Tim Wakefield will take the ball instead.\u00a0 \u201cObviously, it doesn\u2019t look good at all,\u201d said catcher Victor Martinez.\u00a0 \u201cBut I mean, we still have to go out there and keep playing.\u201d\u00a0 The Red Sox are still 41-30 at home (-360) and have won 27 of their last 44 games at Fenway Park.\u00a0 The club is also an impressive 17-11 against the Rays at home dating back to September 11, 2007.\u00a0 Boston doesn\u2019t fare to well at home with the money line of -100 to -125, posting a 4-8 record in 2010 (-520) and 17-22 mark over the last three seasons (-840).<\/p>\n
Red Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield is 3-10 with a 5.19 ERA in 28 games (17 starts) this season and hasn\u2019t picked up a victory since July 2.\u00a0 He worked two scoreless innings in relief in his last outing at home against the White Sox, scattering just two hits and picking up a strikeout.\u00a0 The right-hander is a dismal 1-6 with a 5.82 ERA in 17 games (10 starts) at home, but has issued just 17 walks while collecting 43 punch outs in 72.2 frames.\u00a0 In 43 career games (33 starts) versus Tampa Bay, Wakefield has a tremendous 20-6 record and 3.60 ERA, including a 10-4 mark and 3.40 ERA in 25 appearances (19 starts) at Tropicana Field.<\/p>\n
Bettors may get the impression from Red Sox players that the season is officially over, which makes it hard to back them in this contest.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 12-3 in Garza\u2019s last 15 starts versus the Red Sox and a perfect 4-0 in the last four meetings with him on the mound against Wakefield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Rays look to officially bury the Red Sox in the playoff race with the series finale at Fenway Park in front of an ESPN audience. Tampa Bay Rays at Boston Red Sox Tampa Bay\u2019s impressive 14-5 victory over the Red Sox on Tuesday pushed their lead in the Wild Card race to 7 1\/2 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":4486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2889,69,2743,1492,339,150,1819,882,605],"class_list":["post-7212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-american-league-east","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-carl-crawford","tag-espn","tag-matt-garza","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-terry-francona","tag-tim-wakefield","tag-wild-card"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7213,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7212\/revisions\/7213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}