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Rays rally to salvage finale against Red Sox (w/video)

 
Tampa Bay Rays' Kevin Kiermaier slides into third base with a triple against the Boston Red Sox during the seventh inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson) BXF109
Tampa Bay Rays' Kevin Kiermaier slides into third base with a triple against the Boston Red Sox during the seventh inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Sunday, Aug. 2, 2015. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson) BXF109
Published Aug. 3, 2015

BOSTON — Okay, so not everything worked out perfectly for the Rays on Sunday afternoon.

James Loney was doing the postgame interview with Todd Kalas as one of the stars in the 4-3 win over Boston when Chris Archer made the now-standard move of dousing him with a cooler of water. But with David DeJesus traded, Archer needs a new splash partner, and fellow starter Erasmo Ramirez, armed with a cooler full of Gatorade, wasn't quite up to the task.

"Erasmo's too short," the 6-foot-3 Loney said of the 5-11 pitcher. "So he got me in the ear instead of on top, because he couldn't get up. I talked to him about it. He's going to get better. We might get him a little stool or a step so he can get up higher."

The Rays needed the laughs after a rough week in which they dealt two key veterans and didn't make any improvements at the trade deadline, saw Steven Souza Jr. get hurt and Matt Moore sent to the minors, and lost three straight.

Coming from behind with a two-run rally in the eighth and hanging on to beat the rival Red Sox, improving to 52-54 and hoping better times are again ahead, was about as good as it could get.

"It's huge for us just to battle back right there," starter Jake Odorizzi said.

Rare, anyway, just the third time this season the Rays won in 45 games when trailing after seven innings.

Steve Geltz got the win for getting the last out of the seventh inning, but the hard part was handled by Jake McGee, who won the Friday rematch with David Ortiz (popout) and Mike Napoli (strikeout, on a curveball), and by Brad Boxberger, who looked extremely sharp in his first action since Wednesday, striking out the side on 12 pitches for his 26th save.

"It was good to get this one," McGee said.

The Rays got to the eighth down 3-2, Odorizzi battling his way through six innings with a career high-matching 113 pitches, the offense having just wasted a promising opportunity in the seventh, Joey Butler — now 9-for-his-last-65 — striking out with the bases loaded.

Evan Longoria led off against usually tough Junichi Tazawa and banged a ball high off the Green Monster for a double. An out later, Asdrubal Cabrera turned on a fastball Tazawa left over the middle and one-hopped the rightfield fence for a double that tied it.

Loney was looking for something to drive, but a soft single he blooped into shallow center worked just as well.

"Didn't hit it as hard as you'd like, but it fell in, and that was good for us," Loney said. "It's like breaking your bat and getting a hit. Over the course of a year you hit balls hard and they don't fall in, so you always takes the ones that do fall."

Cabrera made it count with an aggressive break off second, though he said what looked like a good read that the ball would drop between centerfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. and shortstop Xander Bogaerts actually was somewhat premeditated.

"I love to watch the outfield before the pitcher throws the ball to see where they're playing when you're in that situation," Cabrera said. "The centerfielder was back and I knew the shortstop, where he was playing, he had no chance to make that play."

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That was actually their second run as a result of Cabrera's hustle, as he scored from first in the fourth on Loney's double into the rightfield corner to cut the Sox lead to 3-2.

"That's a long way around the bases," manager Kevin Cash said. "Cabby gave it all he had to get home, for sure. We needed to get like an ambulance or something to get him some oxygen when he got to the dugout."

All kinds of things to laugh at.

Contact Marc Topkin at mtopkin@tampabay.com. Follow @TBTimes_Rays.