Shaw’s homers carry Red Sox over Rays 11

Nathan Karns takes the hill against the Red Sox for the second time on Sunday.

When a team is in the midst of a three-game losing streak, timely hitting is nothing short of crucial. Tampa Bay is now 6-10 (.375) in home games decided by one run, the second-lowest win percentage in Major League Baseball (Oakland is 5-14, .263, in one-run home games).

The Red Sox selected Shaw in the 32nd round of the 2008 draft, but he did not sign until being re-drafted by Boston in the ninth round of the 2011 draft out of Kent State University. A fourth straight victory seemed well within reach. Robbie Ross entered with a runner on third and two outs and after hitting a batter and a walk, he struck out Joey Butler to get out of the jam. Tazawa just couldn’t bridge the gap to Uehara. “Credit (the Rays) for putting a few good at-bats together on Taz”. The Rays salvaged the last game of the three-game series. “It was setting up well”.

Trailing 3-2, Evan Longoria opened the inning with a double off the Green Monster against Tazawa (2-4). Loney then hammered home the definitive blow, a go-ahead RBI single to center to provide his team with a 4-3 advantage.

– The Red Sox rely so heavily on both Tazawa and Uehara sometimes that it’s reasonable to wonder whether hitting a wall is inevitable. Since July 1, that number has climbed to nine. Castillo had a two-run single that made it 9-6, with Shaw making a nice slide by tapping the plate with his hand despite the throwing beating him. While news of Lucchino’s decision surfaced the day after the trading deadline, one in which the Red Sox did little to improve a ballclub headed toward its third last-place finish in the past four years, sources insisted that the timing was coincidental and that Lucchino was not being forced out of his job. He’s failed to go past five innings since his return.

“It’s been fastball location that hasn’t been as sharp in those moments”.

By the fourth inning, Miley was working with a 3-1 lead. His ERA now sits at 2.93. “I dont know anything other than that hes getting an X-ray”, manager Kevin Cash said. He’s 0-2 in his last five starts.

It was a pretty good day for old-fashioned hardball.

When the Sox added another run on David Ortiz’ third inning double-Xander Bogaerts again the man coming home-it looked like Boston was in for a productive offensive night. Ortiz struck out for the second out of the inning, bringing up Hanley Ramirez. Sandoval also had off year in 2010 (when the Giants started their on/off World Series run), and came back with the best numbers of his career, relatively speaking. Boston is hoping he can perform as well as his counterparts Eduardo Rodriguez (6-3, 4.34 ERA, 56 Ks), who was called up earlier this season.