Red Sox Beat Rays 3-2 April 15th

Ready to jump on the bandwagon? I don't blame you if you were skeptical about the 2013 Red Sox, but through 12 games the Red Sox have had some great pitching, timely hitting and are playing with enthusiasm!

Today on Patriot's Day, the Boston Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 on a Mike Napoli walk off hit as Dustin Pedroia came racing around to score from first base and give the Sox the series sweep over the Rays!

Andrew Bailey got the vulture win for the Sox and is 1-0 on the season. Bailey came in to pitch the 9th inning in relief of Ryan Dempster with the Sox leading 2-1. Koji Uehara threw a scoreless 8th inning for the Red Sox. But Bailey blew the save, and got the win with Napoli's RBI.

Jacoby Ellsbury hit a triple in the 1st inning and Shane Victorino grounded out to the right side of the infield to give the Sox a 1-0 lead. The Red Sox snapped the 1-1 tie in the bottom of the 5th inning when Jarrod Saltalamacchia went deep for a home run. It was 2-1 until the ninth when Bailey gave up the tying run before Napoli knocked in the game winner for the Red Sox.

Ryan Dempster was strong through 7 innings striking out 10 and walking 2. He only gave up two hits, one of those being the homerun by Evan Longoria in the 4th inning. Dempster threw 101 pitches, 63 of them for strikes.

The Red Sox travel to Cleveland to play the Indians who are now managed by former Sox manager Terry Francona in a three game series April 16-18. All the games will start at 7:05 with the pregame starting at 6:20 on WDEA AM 1370.

Box Score

Today's victory marked the Red Sox's first Patriot's Day win in 4 years, as they were 0-3 the last three years.

Last year on Patriot's Day former manager Bobby Valentine ripped Kevin Youkilis saying he was not "as physically or emotionally into the game as he has been in the past". That prompted a five game losing streak, and the Sox finished April 2011 11-11.