It was the second loss of the day for the Red Sox, as the earlier squad lost 8-3 to the Tigers.
Jacoby Ellsbury led the way on offense with two hits, while Carl Crawford earned the RBI on the night.
Tim Wakefield picks up the loss in this one, surrendering six earned runs on four home runs in three innings. Andy Sonnastine of the Rays picked up his first win of the spring, throwing 4 1/3 innings and giving up all three Boston runs.
End 8th, Rays 7-3: The Rays tack on one more run as Sam Fuld makes a quick rotation around the bases, scoring from second on a Lobaton single into center.
The Red Sox are able to stave off any other scoring threats, but they have quite the deficit to make up with one inning to go.
Mid 8th, Rays 6-3: Joel Peralta works another 1-2-3 inning against the Sox, delivering strikeouts to Daniel Nava and Jed Lowrie to stifle any attempts of a comeback in the 8th.
End 7th, Rays 6-3: Matt Fox will get his turn on the Red Sox' mound, replacing Albers after one inning.
Alex Hassan — who replaced Ellsbury, but switched to right field — came up with a huge play from the outfield, catching Dan Johnson out at home plate after he tried to extend the run on a single to right.
Fox loads the bases in the seventh, but gets out of the jam by striking out Ray Olmedo to end the inning.
Mid 7th, Rays 6-3: Joel Peralta takes over for Kyle Farnsworth and has a 1-2-3 inning for the Rays. It wasn't easy though, as Peralta just barely won a foot race with Carl Crawford to beat him to first after he hit a dribbler to the mound.
As former teammates of Crawford, they know he's fast, and they have to act quickly when he's barreling down the base path.
End 6th, Rays 6-3: Matt Albers takes the mound for the Sox after two innings from Williams.
Williams finishes the game with two strikeouts and three walks.
Carl Crawford gives a nice glimpse of what Sox fans have to look forward to this season as he dives out to make a snag to end the inning.
No damage done in the 6th, but we've seen the last of Johnny Damon, who's been replaced by Jose Lobaton.
Mid 6th, Rays 6-3: Drew Sutton drives a two-out single to get a bit of offensive action for the Sox, but Farnsworth has no trouble keeping Boston off the board in the sixth.
He closes the inning by striking out Mark Wagner, Farnsworth's third strikeout of the game.
End 5th, Rays 6-3: Jeremy Hazelbaker has replaced J.D. Drew in right field, while Randy Williams keeps the Rays at bay in the fifth.
Williams allowed one walk in the fifth, but he cruises through with some help from the Sox defense.
Mid 5th, Rays 6-3: Red Sox load the bases early in the fifth, as Jacoby Ellsbury's bloop single puts players in scoring position for the first legitimate scoring chance of the matchup.
Sonnastine walks Carl Crawford to bring Sutton in from third to put the Red Sox on the board.
Sonnastine is done after 4 1/3 to be replaced by Kyle Farnsworth.
Farnsworth walks Drew to open the inning to bring Wagner around to score, and Ellsbury comes home on a past ball to cut the lead in half.
End 4th, Rays 6-0: Randy Williams has replaced Tim Wakefield on the mound to start and walks Kelly Shoppach to start.
Shoppach follows up the walk by stealing second, his first steal ever — yes, ever.
Williams calms things down, however, forcing Eliot Johnson and Ben Zobrist to go by way of the K.
Evan Longoria flies out to end the inning, as the Rays maintain their cushy 6-0 lead.
Mid 4th, Rays 6-0: Andy Sonnanstine must be riding the offensive momentum, as he delivers back-to-back strikeouts to Jed Lowrie and Daniel Nava.
Yamaico Navarro flies out to Manny in left to end the inning for the scoreless Sox.
End 3rd, Rays 6-0: And the barrage against Wakefield continues, as Evan Longoria and Manny Ramirez open the inning with back-to-back home runs to extend their lead to 6-0.
Wake stays in for now, only to allow a single to B.J. Upton. Red Sox catcher Mark Wagner recovers on that play, however, as he catches him stealing second for the second out.
Wake regroups to end the inning as he strikes out Sean Rodriguez.
Mid 3rd, Rays 4-0: Neither pitcher has his best stuff right now, as Ellsbury singles into center field and Crawford walks.
But the double play strikes again as Drew grounds out to short to end the inning.
End 2nd, Rays 4-0: The Rays opened up the inning with another double, as Matt Joyce exploded out of the batters box to capitalize on a bobble by J.D. Drew in right.
Former Red Sox Kelly Shoppach drilled a two-run shot to bring Joyce around, and Ben Zobrist followed up with a two-run blast of his own.
Rays take a 4-0 lead as we head into the third.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Sonnanstine has struggled so far this spring, and he started the inning by walking Daniel Nava and Yamaico Navarro, but he got out of trouble by striking out Nate Spears and then caused Drew Sutton to ground into a double play.
End 1st, 0-0: Ben Zobrist sparked some early offense against Wake, as he drove a fair double down the right field line, but he didn't get very far after that.
Wakefield got his first look at former teammate Johnny Damon, and forced him to pop out to Wagner.
The knuckleballer escaped any trouble by striking out Evan Longoria, and forcing Manny to fly out to center.
Mid 1st, 0-0: J.D. Drew opened up the Red Sox offense with a two-out single up the middle, but he was left stranded on first as Jed Lowrie struck out in the next at bat.
We'll get our first look at Wakefield coming up in his first start this spring.
7:00 p.m.: Carl Crawford is in his second matchup against the Rays, but he says it's still a bit strange. He gives a quick shout out to the Tampa Bay fans, thanking them for all their support throughout his career with the Rays.
6:37 p.m.: Andy Sonnanstine is slated to get the start for the Rays from the mound tonight. The righty has had a tough spring so far, posting two losses witha 9.00 ERA.
His start against the Sox will be his fourth of the spring.
6:12 p.m.: Wakefield will be getting his first start of the spring against the Rays, but it's his fourth appearance overall.
So far, the knuckleballer posts a 2.70 ERA with four strikeouts in springtime action.
6:10 p.m.: This is the Red Sox second spring training matchup against Tampa Bay — as they dropped an 8-6 decision in Port Charlotte on March 10.
5:30 p.m.: The Red Sox will be looking for their first win of the day on Friday night, as the second split squad heads to Charlotte Sports Park to match up against the Rays.
The first team dropped an 8-3 decision against the Tigers at City of Palms Park, as they collected just four hits against Tigers pitching. Clay Buchholz gave up five hits and three runs with one strikeout in four-plus innings.
The starting infield was working with the first squad this afternoon, but the starting outfield will be with second team for the night game.
Jacoby Ellsbury leads things off in center, followed by former Ray Carl Crawford in left and J.D. Drew in right. Jed Lowrie will bat cleanup against Tampa Bay, and Daniel Nava will be the designated hitter to start the matchup.
Tim Wakefield will be throwing from the hill to start for the Sox, and he's expected to be followed by Matt Albers. Mark Wagner will be behind the dish for Boston.
Keep up with all your updates here on NESN as the night goes on, first pitch is at 7:05 p.m.
