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May 26, 2010 - 4:21 AM By MIKE LIPKA STATS Writer

Boston (25-21) at Tampa Bay (32-13), 7:10 p.m. EDT

To turn the tables on the Tampa Bay Rays and complete the first sweep of the majors' best team in 2010, the Boston Red Sox may have to finally find a way to solve Matt Garza.

The right-hander has dominated Boston lately, but the Red Sox will be seeking a season-best fifth straight victory to complete an impressive road trip Wednesday night.

The Rays (32-14) outscored Boston 24-9 while winning four in a row at Fenway Park from April 16-19, but the roles have been squarely reversed this week.

The Red Sox (26-21) cruised to a 6-1 win Monday, then limited Tampa Bay to one hit in Tuesday's 2-0 victory. They've won seven of eight overall despite navigating a difficult stretch of their schedule against the Yankees and first-place teams Minnesota, Philadelphia and Tampa Bay.

"We kept saying we'd get on a roll, we'd start playing better baseball," left-hander Jon Lester said. "This is a good team and I don't think people really believed it, but we are a good team and we're going to keep grinding it out."

David Ortiz was among the Boston players off to a slow start, but he had a two-run double Tuesday and is batting .400 with five homers and 14 RBIs in his last 10 games.

Ortiz, however, is 3 for 22 (.136) with nine strikeouts against Garza, who ranks second in the AL in ERA. The Red Sox aren't surprised - the right-hander is 6-1 with a 2.15 ERA in his last 11 starts against Boston, including two wins during the 2008 AL championship series.

Garza (5-2, 2.37 ERA) has never lost to the Red Sox at home, and his dominance continued in Boston on April 18, when he gave up four hits in eight scoreless innings of a 7-1 win. He also was sharp Friday at Houston, pitching an eight-inning complete game in Tampa Bay's 2-1 loss.

That same night, Boston's John Lackey (4-3, 5.07) continued to struggle, walking a season-high five and allowing four runs in five innings of a 5-1 loss at Philadelphia.

"I didn't pitch my best by any means," said Lackey, who now looks to avoid a third straight loss after allowing 15 runs and 12 walks in 18 innings over his last three starts.

The Rays clobbered him for eight runs in 3 1-3 innings of their 8-2 win at Boston on April 19. Lackey went 9-1 with a 2.36 ERA in his first 11 career starts against the Rays, but he's 0-2 with a 17.28 ERA the last two times he's faced them.

His shaky outing Friday was the only time in Boston's last seven games that the club's starter allowed more than two runs. The Red Sox rotation, which had a 5.18 ERA through last Tuesday, has allowed one run over 28 innings during the team's four-game winning streak.

The club's bullpen, meanwhile, has allowed no hits and one walk in six innings in this series.

Willy Aybar's fourth-inning single off Lester was the Rays' only hit Tuesday, and one more loss would match Tampa Bay's longest losing streak of the season - a three-game skid from May 8-10.

"Obviously we're not hitting the ball as well as we can right now," manager Joe Maddon said. "But I'm really not in any way discouraged."

The road team has won each of these teams' first six meetings this year, though Boston has not swept a series in St. Petersburg since a four-game set from Sept. 9-12, 2002.

Red Sox outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury is expected to miss a second straight game with a sore left side.