Anthony swung at the first thing he liked
Roman Anthony opened the game with a home run and Boston never trailed after it. The Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 at Tropicana Field on Friday night, and Anthony produced three of the four runs himself.
He took Ian Seymour deep with nobody out in the first, his fifth of the season. Tampa Bay answered in the bottom half when Junior Caminero grounded out to bring a run in off Ranger Suarez. The tie lasted one inning.
Boston loaded the bases in the second and Anthony cleared two of them with a two-out single, again off Seymour. A solo shot in the third pushed it to 4-1. That was the end of Boston’s scoring, and it was enough.
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Nine hits, no errors, and a bullpen that held
The Red Sox finished with nine hits to Tampa Bay’s five and kept a clean sheet in the field. The Rays did not. Between them the two teams left 18 runners on base, which tells you how little either offence did with what it created.
The heaviest miss came in the sixth. Tampa Bay filled the bases with two out against Olds, who had just replaced Suarez, and Fraley could not get anyone home. Weissert handled the seventh and eighth without trouble. Erik Miller came on for the ninth and closed it.
Tampa Bay are already in
The defeat costs the Rays little in the standings. They clinched a postseason berth earlier this month on a Caminero walk-off, and what remains of the schedule is about seeding rather than survival. Scoring once on five hits at home is still not the shape they want to carry into October.
For Boston, Anthony’s evening is the story. A leadoff homer and a two-out, two-RBI single accounted for three of the four runs on a night when the bats went silent from the fourth inning on.
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