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Rays, Red Sox battle for AL East supremacy

Jun 30, 2008 - 12:04 PM Boston (50-34) at Tampa Bay (49-32), 7:10 pm EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- With only a half-game seperating them in the standings, the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox will square off Monday in the opener of a three-game series.

The Rays grabbed their slim lead in the American League East on Sunday with a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Shawn Riggans and Willy Aybar both hit home runs for Tampa Bay, which has won 11 of its past 15 games and finished 5-1 on a six-game interleague road swing.

Coupled with the Red Sox's 3-2 loss to the Houston Astros on Sunday, the victory helped the Rays move past the defending champions into first place in the division standings for the first time since June 3.

Boston was burned by a former Red Sox as Mark Loretta gave the Astros the lead with two outs in the eighth inning when he lined an RBI single into center field off reliever Hideki Okajima, who has allowed 12 of his last 15 inherited runners to score.

Rookie Justin Masterson (4-1, 3.43 ERA) will take the mound for the Red Sox, who are looking to avoid their first three-game losing streak since being swept by the Oakland Athletics from May 23-25.

Tampa Bay will counter with James Shields (5-5, 3.76), who snapped a three-game losing streak in his last outing. The righthander tossed seven frames, yielding a run and four hits with five strikeouts in Wednesday's 15-3 rout of the Florida Marlins.