Red Sox Beat Rays 9-5 in 11 Innings – Stay in 1st Place [VIDEO]

The Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night, 9-5 in 11 innings to stay atop 1st place in the AL East.

The Red Sox received a good performance by Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound. E-Rod went 6.0 innings allowing 5 runs although just 3 were earned. He struck out 7 and walked 1.

He did allow a home run to Wander Franco, Tampa Bay's rookie 3rd baseman who was playing his 1st major league game. He ended up 2-4 with a double and home run and drove in 3 runs

5 Red Sox pitchers pitched the final 5 innings. Josh Taylor (2 strikeouts), Adam Ottavino (1 strikeout), Matt Barnes (1 strikeout), Hirakazu Sawamura and Darwinzon Hernandez combined to hold the Rays scoreless only allowing 2 hits.

Hunter Renfroe helped Boston score 5 runs in the 3rd inning, when he hit a 2-run homer, his 9th of the season. He drove in 3 runs on the night against his former club.

Kike Hernandez, JD Martinez and Rafael Devers all doubled for the Red Sox.

Xander Bogaerts was 3-5, Devers 2-4 and Renfroe 2-5

The game saw the debut of Red Sox catcher Connor Wong who pinch ran for JD Martinez in the 11th inning. He scored on Devers' double.

The game got wacky in the 9th and extra innings.

In the 9th Kevin Kiermaier was on 1st when a ground ball was hit to Kike Hernandez who tried tagging him out. The ball came loose and Bogaerts alertly picked it up and had his foot on 2nd. After the review Kermaier was called out at 2nd base!

In the 10th inning, the Red Sox were run out of an inning with a strike-em-out, throw-em out double play.

Manager Alex Cora on the win.

Tampa Bay has now lost 7 games in a row

Boston is now 1.5 games ahead of the Rays in 1st place in the AL East. They are 5.5 games ahead of the 3rd place New York Yankees who lost to Kansas City 6-5.

Boston and Tampa Bay will play game 2 of the 3 game series Wednesday night. Hear the pregame starting at 6:10 p.m. and 1st pitch at 7:10 p.m. on AM 1370 WDEA.