Quite the exciting finish to the Red Sox/Rays game. Luck almost conspired to give the game to Boston. In the sixth inning, Drew appeared to strike out looking. He was ready to throw his bat away but noticed the ump called the pitch a ball. NESN's pitch tracker showed the ball just at the bottom of the strike zone. Two pitches later, Drew hit a home run for the Red Sox second run.

In the ninth, the Red Sox put two on with one out on a Lowell double and a Youkilis single. Moss then hit a high fly ball to right that looked like the second out, but it hit the catwalk and fell for a double. That put the tying runs on second and third. Varitek hit a sacrifice fly. Percival, however, twisted his ankle backing up at third on the play, and Maddon made him leave the game. The Red Sox were going to pinch hit Casey, but Maddon changed pitchers before Casey was announced, so Lugo stayed in to face the lefty Howell. Lugo battled, but lined out to the shortstop to end the game.

The Rays win 5-4,and extend their lead in the AL East to 1 1/2 games. The announcers noted for the first time they can remember that the crowd at Tropicana was mostly Rays fans, not Red Sox fans. That's great to see.