Rays 5, Red Sox 4 and No brawls as Rays best Red Sox

Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Game of the day: Rays 5, Red Sox 4
No brawls as Rays best Red Sox
Surprising Tampa Bay squad beat Boston for first time in eight tries; Upton, Gross homer.
Detroit News wire services

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- No punches, no angry words exchanged.

With first place on the line in the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox stuck to playing baseball Monday night.

James Shields scattered five hits over 6 1/3 innings and B.J. Upton and Gabe Gross homered, helping the Rays remain unbeaten at home against the Red Sox with a 5-4 victory that hiked their lead to 1 1/2 games in the division.

The Rays (50-32), surprising owners of the best record in baseball, have won six of seven and shrugged off a six-game losing streak to Boston, which is 6-0 against Tampa Bay at Fenway Park but 0-4 at Tropicana Field.

It was the first meeting between the combative division rivals since their much talked about June 5 benches-clearing brawl at Fenway that led to the suspensions of eight players, including Shields (6-5).

Both managers said beforehand they didn't anticipate any carryover from the melee that ensued after Shields hit Coco Crisp in the leg with a pitch during a 7-1 Tampa Bay loss.

"I knew from both sides nothing was going to happen. It was over," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Shields was suspended for six games for his part in the brawl. This time, he limited Boston to two runs before Tampa Bay's bullpen barely held on to hand the Red Sox their 11th straight one-run road loss.

Grant Balfour bailed the Rays out of a jam in the seventh, and J.P. Howell got the final out of the ninth after Boston scored twice.

Percival limped off the mound after appearing to tweak a sore hamstring backing up the plate on Varitek's sacrifice fly. Percival argued with Rays manager Joe Maddon before leaving.

"Percy was very upset, and I knew he was going to be very upset," Maddon said.

Percy, 38, later apologized to the manager.

"I hate coming off the mound in the middle of the inning -- don't like doing it, and it's embarrassing -- but Joe did the right thing. ... I know better than to act like that. The situation got the better of me."

Devil Rays open up a 1.5 game lead on the Red Sux