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Reyes halts Red Sox rally as Devil Rays hold on

Aug 15, 2007 - 9:58 PM BOSTON (Ticker) -- This time, Al Reyes held on.

After blowing a save in the ninth inning Tuesday night, Reyes stranded the potential tying run on second base in the bottom of ninth inning as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Boston Red Sox, 6-5, on Wednesday afternoon.

The Devil Rays avoided a three-game series sweep as they posted their first win at Fenway Park this season.

Tampa Bay jumped out to a 6-0 lead against Boston starter Daisuke Matsuzaka. But the Red Sox scored three times in the seventh, added a run in the eighth and pulled within 6-5 in the ninth.

Coco Crisp led off the ninth with a bunt single and scored when Julio Lugo doubled to left field after a 12-pitch at-bat.

"That will wear you out sometimes," Reyes said of Lugo's long at-bat. "You throw a lot of pitches and then you say, 'Wow.'"

But Reyes bore down, striking out both Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis before walking David Ortiz to put the potential game-winning run on base.

That brought Manny Ramirez to the plate, but Reyes stuck him out on a high fastball to preserve his 18th save of the season.

"I didn't want to give anything to Ortiz in that situation, especially with an open base," Reyes said. "I'd rather face Manny with two guys on because anything he hits in the hole we could get an out at second base, especially because Ortiz has a problem with his knee and is a slow runner."

"He is an absolute pro," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said of his closer. "You could see him out there, and he was never riled. Just kept attempting to make his pitch. He knows how to pitch."

Reyes' save made a winner of Tampa Bay rookie Andy Sonnanstine (2-8), who shut down the Red Sox lineup by allowing just three runs in six-plus innings.

Sonnanstine did not lose the shutout until there were two outs in the seventh inning. Jason Varitek belted a two-run homer, his 10th of the season, and after Crisp walked, Lugo doubled him home off reliever Gary Glover.

Ramirez made it 6-4 with an RBI double in the eighth.

"I know (Sonnanstine) wasn't ahead of every hitter, but it sure seemed like it," Boston manager Terry Francona said. "He threw strike one. We didn't hit in a lot of hitter's counts. He's got some deception to his delivery, but I think the biggest thing was throwing strike one."

After their running was shut down for the first two games of the series, speed played a factor in the Devil Rays' first run as Akinori Iwamura went from first to third on Carl Crawford's single in the first inning.

Crawford stole second with one out, then Iwamura scored on a ground ball to first.

"(Running) wasn't necessarily part of the game plan," said Crawford, who had one of Tampa Bay's two steals. "Matsuzaka just had a bit of a high leg kick and once we feel like we can get a guy, we just take off."

Iwamura's single snapped an 0-15 slump but continued a trend of Japanese players having success against Matsuzaka this year.

Iwamura, Hideki Matsui, Kenji Johjima, and Ichiro Suzuki have gone a combined 9-for-32 (.281) against him. That number would be 8-for-20 (.400) without Ichiro's 1-for-12. The rest of the league is hitting just .253 against Matsuzaka

A combination of speed, power, shoddy defense and wildness from Matsuzaka led to a four-run rally for the Devil Rays in the third. Iwamura's leadoff single was followed by an infield single by Crawford.

After a walk loaded the bases, Carlos Pena pounded a double off the wall in left, scoring a pair. Pedroia mishandled a slow roller at second base for another RBI hit for Delmon Young. Jonny Gomes capped the rally with a successful safety squeeze.

The Devil Rays added their final run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Dioner Navarro, scoring Brendan Harris.

Matsuzaka (13-9) allowed six runs and eight hits over six innings, walking three and striking out five.