Wednesday, September 2, 2009; 5:04 AM
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Boston has an opportunity to put a serious crimp in Tampa Bay's playoff chances, so the Red Sox were determined to not let a rare victory at Tropicana Field slip away.
Jonathan Papelbon retired all six batters he faced Tuesday night, bailing the AL wild-card leaders out of an eighth inning jam before pitching a perfect ninth to finish an 8-4 victory that hurt the Rays' hopes of returning to the postseason.
"You know it's a big game whenever you bring your closer in in the eighth inning with no outs," said center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who made the defensive play of the game - a diving catch that preserved a three-run lead.
"(Papelbon) did a great job tonight, and we got a win here. For some reason it's been tough for us," Ellsbury added. "Any time you play head to head, those are big games. It's nice to come in and get that first win."
Papelbon entered with two runs in and the bases filled after Hideki Okajima allowed five consecutive batters to reach base. He struck out B.J. Upton before Ellsbury snared Jason Bartlett's sinking liner and scrambled to his feet to keep a runner from tagging up at third.
The closer got Carl Crawford to foul out to end the eighth. He retired Ben Zobrist on a liner to first in the ninth, then struck out Evan Longoria and Carlos Pena to notch his 33rd save and fifth of more than one inning.
"Those are pressure situations. The guy that's the coolest will come out on top," Papelbon said. "You get into situations like that, it boils down to focus."
The victory was the 11th in 14 games for Boston, which got a strong start from Jon Lester (11-7) and home runs from Jason Bay, J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis.
Tampa Bay dropped a season-high six games behind in the wild-card race.
The Red Sox, who lost to the Rays in a seven-game AL championship series last year, remained 6 1/2 games behind the first-place New York Yankees in the AL East.
Lester allowed two runs and seven hits, walked one and struck out nine. The left-hander gave up an RBI single and solo homer to Pena, who hit his AL-leading 39th leading off the fourth.
Yankees 9, Orioles 6
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