Matt Garza’s Eight Shutout Innings Lead Rays to 7-1 Win Over Red Sox

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Apr 18, 2010

Matt Garza's Eight Shutout Innings Lead Rays to 7-1 Win Over Red Sox BOSTON — Matt Garza pitched shutout ball for eight innings, Carlos Pena and B.J. Upton each hit two-run homers and the Tampa Bay Rays continued their hot road start with a 7-1 win over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday.

The Rays remained unbeaten away from Tropicana Field, winning its sixth straight on the road during this current 10-game trip. The club record for consecutive road victories in a season is seven, done in June 2004.

Dustin Pedroia had a sacrifice fly for Boston, which has lost four in a row. Tampa Bay can close out the four-game sweep in the traditional Patriots Day game, beginning 11 a.m. Monday.

Garza (3-0) allowed four hits, struck out five and walked two before Mike Ekstrom worked the ninth. Garza has allowed just three runs in 24 innings this season.

Garza held the Red Sox hitless for 4 2/3 innings until Adrian Beltre lined a shot off the left-field wall. He was thrown out by Carl Crawford trying to stretch it into a double.

The Rays scored two runs in the second and third innings before breaking it open with three in the sixth against Jon Lester (0-2), who gave up seven runs, seven hits, three walks and fanned five in six innings. He is 2-6 with a 5.46 ERA in 15 career starts in March and April.

Evan Longoria doubled leading off the second and Pena followed with his fourth homer, a drive off the back wall near the first section of seats in the center-field bleachers.

Lester walked Gabe Kapler and Jason Bartlett to start the third. Crawford sacrificed before Ben Zobrist singled into the right-center, making it 4-0.

Upton hit his homer near the same spot as Pena's to make it 6-0. Willy Aybar doubled and later scored on Kapler's fielder's choice grounder.

Crawford took third on the front end of a double steal in the fifth, his 30th straight successful attempt against the Red Sox.

Notes
Red Sox DH David Ortiz, hitting just .171 with no homers and two RBIs, was out of the lineup. Jason Varitek started behind the plate after regular catcher Victor Martinez, who took Ortiz's DH spot in the lineup, caught last night's late game. … Lester collected his 500th strikeout when he got Aybar looking in the fourth. … Actor Jonah Hill threw out the first pitch. … Ryan Westmoreland, a highly regarded 19-year-old Red Sox minor league outfielder who had surgery to remove a cavernous malformation in his brain, was at the game sitting in GM Theo Epstein's box. He is undergoing therapy at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston.

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