St. Petersburg, FL (SportsNetwork.com) – Jake Elmore homered in his first at-
bat of the season after being called up from the minors and the Tampa Bay
Rays rallied for a 7-5 win over the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday.
Elmore’s solo homer — his first for the Rays — came after he was recalled
from Triple-A Durham earlier in the day and punctuated a two-run seventh
inning that gave the home team the lead.
Steven Souza Jr. also hit a solo homer for Tampa Bay, but left the game with a
right forearm cramp apparently suffered when he struck out swinging to end the
sixth inning.
The Rays had 12 hits and rallied back from a 5-1 deficit to snap a four-game
losing streak that included Tuesday’s 1-0 loss to Boston in the series opener.
Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run homer and David Ortiz added a solo blast for the
Red Sox, who had won two in a row.
Boston right-hander Joe Kelly escaped trouble until the sixth inning, when he
was chased during a four-run Tampa Bay rally that tied the score at 5-5. He
was charged with five runs on eight hits and a walk and had seven strikeouts
in his first career appearance against the Rays.
Nathan Karns, in his first career outing against Boston, gave up five runs in
six innings. The right-hander allowed seven hits and four walks.
Five consecutive Rays batters reached base to start the sixth, knocking Kelly
out of the game and sparking the four-run rally.
Kelly was replaced by Craig Breslow after giving up consecutive singles to
Asdrubal Cabrera, Evan Longoria, Desmond Jennings and Allan Dykstra, whose hit
scored a run, and a bases-loaded walk to Logan Forsythe. Brandon Guyer greeted
Breslow with a two-run single to make it 5-5.
After Brad Boxberger (1-1) replaced Karns for the seventh and struck out the
side, the Rays took the lead in the bottom of the inning. Cabrera and Longoria
hit consecutive singles off Edward Mujica (1-1) to start the rally and Cabrera
scored when Jennings grounded into a double play. Elmore followed with a homer
to left to give the Rays a 7-5 lead.
Steve Geltz worked around a Pedroia single in the ninth inning to earn his
first major league save.
Souza hit his fourth homer of the season with one out in the first inning,
driving a 96 mph fastball into the seats behind left field.
Pedroia also hit his fourth homer, on a 92 mph fastball with one out in the
third after Mookie Betts walked. Hanley Ramirez drew a two-out walk to keep
the inning going and scored from first on Mike Napoli’s single up the middle,
which was deflected by Karns and the second baseman Forsythe.
Ortiz ripped a solo homer into the right-field seats with one out in the fifth
inning, his third of the season, to give the Red Sox a 4-1 lead. Ramirez added
a single and Napoli followed with a ground-rule double but the Rays stuck with
Karns, who got out of the jam.
Ryan Hanigan stroked a one-out double off Karns in the sixth and scored on
Betts’ single to make it 5-1.
Game Notes
The Rays announced Wednesday that left-handed reliever Jeff Beliveau will have
surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder and will miss the rest of
the season … Elmore became the 11th player to homer in his first at-bay with
the Rays. He was added to replace second baseman Ryan Brett, who went on the
15-day disabled list with a shoulder injury. Brett is the 11th player the Rays
placed on the disabled list this season … Red Sox right fielder Shane
Victorino, who was hit by a pitch in the fourth inning, was taken out for a
pinch-hitter in the fifth.
