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Red Sox rally past Blue Jays, keep pace with Rays

Sep 20, 2008 - 4:26 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Jason Varitek snapped a tie in the eighth inning by plating Jason Bay with a fielder's choice as the Boston Red Sox recorded a 4-3 triumph over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday.

Varitek's slow grounder gave shortstop Marco Scutaro little option other than to record the out at second base and allow Bay to score.

Kevin Youkilis plated Varitek with a run-scoring single in the fifth inning and Sean Casey followed with a two-run double off Toronto starter A.J. Burnett for Boston (90-63), which remains 1 1/2 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays (91-61) in the American League East. The Rays cruised to an 11-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

"It was a good win, we needed to get that one tonight," Casey said. "We got a good game from (starter Paul Byrd). We were able to get Burnett that one inning and the bullpen really closed the door for us."

"It feels like playoffs right now because everything is just so important and crucial," said Byrd, who allowed three runs and six hits in six innings. "So I love when games matter, I love the pressure, I love the fans caring tremendously. It's just a blast to be able to help this team out in the stretch run."

After getting the final out of the seventh inning, Manny Delcarmen (0-2) quickly retired the first two batters in the bottom of the eighth to pick up the win. Delcarmen left in a favor of Hideki Okajima, who induced Lyle Overbay to fly out to left field to end the inning.

Jonathan Papelbon made it interesting in the ninth by committing a throwing error that advanced leadoff hitter Adam Lind to second base, but the righthander settled down and retired the next three batters to pick up his 39th save of the season.

Burnett allowed three runs and eight hits in seven innings while tossing a season-high 121 pitches. He struck out six to increase his league-leading total to 220, but remains at 18 wins on the season.

"I'll settle for 19. I'm not going on three days' rest for that (to get two starts to possibly win 20 games)," Burnett said. "Should be on normal days anyway.

"I'm just going to go out on my next start and we have the Yankees coming up, so I'll prepare for that."

Gregg Zaun and Travis Snider belted back-to-back run-scoring doubles in the second inning and Scutaro added one of his own in the fifth for Toronto, which was mathematically eliminated from winning the division. Another loss - or Red Sox win - would also bring an end to the Blue Jays' wild-card aspirations.

Brian Tallet (1-2) allowed one run and one hit in one-third of an inning to take the loss.

"We're not really looking at ourselves as spoilers, we're looking at ourselves as a group that wants to come out and finish strong - just play really good baseball for the next 10 days," Tallet said.