Squandered opportunities have Sox down 2 in Rays matchup

-- The Sox put together an impressive comeback charge, but ultimately squandered opportunities and key errors have put Boston down 2 games in their first 2010 set with the deadly division rival Rays.

Saturday evening of course started with the continuation of Friday's suspended game picking up in the bottom of the 9th. As I wrote before, the Sox shouldn't have even been in a tie game at that point as the Rays run came off a fielder's error by Scutaro that lead to a stolen second base and eventually a tying run at the plate on a 2-out hit.

But even with that, the Sox still had the upper hand and let this one slip away again. In the bottom of the 11th David Ortiz busted out a double followed by the Sox loading the bases with no outs. Then the Rays got 2 groundballs played perfectly to get out of the inning.

The next inning Pat Burrell belted a 2-run homer to take a 3-1 lead which Boston could not match.

The night had, what you could call, a reocurring theme. Clay Bucholz had some control problems, walked two batters and gave up four runs in the 1st inning spurred by a base-clearing Burrell double.

However none of those runs would've scored if Mike Cameron (who gets the purple heart for rejoining the team a day after passing a kidney stone Friday) would've not lost track of a somewhat routine flyball for the supposed 3rd out before Clay started walking guys and the other runs piled on. Not sure if he got an error in the book, but it was a costly mistake deserving of an "E" in my book.

From there the Rays would add 2 more in the 5th and 6th, but the Sox never rollover that easy. Scutaro homered towards the mid-game point before Pedroia and Youkilis both ripped 2-run homers in the 7th to bring the Sox withn 1.

It would stay that way though as the final remained 6-5 Rays. Pedie continues to hit the tar outta the ball with his 5th longball in 2010. Papi also doubled in both the continuation game and the nightcap so we're all hoping those possible signs of life are the real deal.

All around, it was a hopeful but heart-breaking two opening games of the homestand with the Rays.

The Lester vs Matt Garza Sunday showdown today should be an interesting one. I think the Sox always got something to prove in a matchup with the Rays or Yankees, whether it be April or August. These games do carry a great deal of importance in a division as tight as the AL East.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry