Red Sox Crush Devil Rays, 7-1
Knuckleballer Tim Wakefield had Tampa Bay fooled on Friday. (AI Wire photo)
Tim Wakefield allowed one run over six innings and Kevin Youkilis hit a three-run homer to lead the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 7-1, in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Friday night.
Wakefield (12-9) gave up six hits and three walks, striking out seven as he won for the fifth time in six starts. The knuckleballer improved to 17-2 against the Devil Rays, the most wins by a Tampa Bay opponent. He is 8-0 at Tropicana Field.
While Boston has won seven of eight, the Devil Rays have lost seven in a row, getting outscored 71-21. Tampa Bay is 5-24 since June 25.
The Red Sox paid -163 on the moneyline (meaning a winning wager of $163 would net a $100 profit).
Jason Hammel (1-1) threw five scoreless innings, then was pulled after allowing consecutive one-out walks in the sixth. Youkilis, in an 0-for-11 slide, gave Boston a 3-1 lead with his three-run drive off Juan Salas.
Hammel retired his first 11 batters before David Ortiz lined a single to right with two outs in the fourth. Making his second start and 12th appearance overall of the season, Hammel gave up two runs and one hit in 5.1 innings.
In other early American League action on Friday:
Cleveland 10, Minnesota 4: Jhonny Peralta homered twice and Kenny Lofton began his third go-round with Cleveland by getting three hits and playing leftfield for the first time as the Indians won at home as -135 favorites. Peralta hit a three-homer in the third off Boof Bonser (5-7) and added a two-run shot in the sixth when the Indians opened a 10-0 lead for Byrd (9-4).
New York Yankees 8, Baltimore 7: Closer Mariano Rivera survived a hectic ninth inning, and the Yankees won at Camden Yards in the completion of a game suspended on June 28. New York took an 8-6 lead in the top of the eighth when play was suspended after a rain delay of 1 hour, 25 minutes. Derek Jeter singled in the go-ahead runs just before a driving shower caused the umpires to call for the tarpaulin. Friday’s game resumed at that point. Facing Rob Bell in the ninth inning, Alex Rodriguez grounded out to shortstop. Had he hit a home run, Rodriguez would have reached the 500-mark but it officially would have been his 493rd, because the game will go into the record book as being played on June 28.
For complete MLB odds for Saturday, visit the Bodog Sportsbook.