Tampa Bay Better Than the Back Bay: Rays 8 Red Sox 4

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Jax came back to retire Rafaela on a forceout on a grounder to Ben Williamson setting up a potential double play with Connor Wong at the plate. Jax did his part in that equation, but Walls did not, and it was u-g-l-y without an alibi. Needless to say, this play will likely not come up on the next Waechter Wednesday interview. I would embed the video, but the play was not recorded. It was a textbook groundball for a 6-4-3 which was first booted and then scooped over Williamson’s head into shallow right field allowing Yoshida to score and Mayer to advance to third. Mayer was then driven on on a single through the infield with Aranda close to the bag holding on Wong. The double play that should have come earlier in the inning finally did happen as Jax induced the required grounder from Jarren Duran to bring the sloppy inning to a merciful end.

That long inning allowed Jake Bennett to reset himself after a rough first two innings which required him to throw nearly 50 pitches to get the first six out of the game. The Rays plated three runs in the second inning after Jonny DeLuca converted a one-out walk into a steal of second base and scored on a Ben Williamson single through the right side. Nick Fortes singled to left which was followed by a Cedric Mullins bunt single and a steal of second base. The final run scored that frame was on a ball Yandy Diaz backspun to the warning track near the Devils Triangle part of the yard. Bennett pitched the rest of the game from a rocking chair retiring seven of the next eight Rays around a Yandy Diaz single. Bennett then was bodied by a batted ball by Caminero for an infield single before striking out Aranda on an ABS overturn to end Bennett’s night on the mound.

This was the first of four lefties the Rays will face in this series, so it was nice to see them plate three runs off Bennett even if they all came off singles, walks, and steals. Keep in mind, most of this was done without Chandler Simpson as he was not in the starting lineup tonight but made his presence felt later with a two-run single, a triple, and a strong throw from left field to home as part of a 7-2-4 put out of Willson Contreras trying to advance to second as the trail runner on a play home. Mike Petriello made a point on the broadcast that Simpson has gone from a 0 measure on his first pitch reads in the outfield to a lead-leading 5.7 so far in 2026. Simpson did not make any notable defesnisve impact in this game, but his two-run bases-loaded single in the 6th inning gave the lead back to the Rays and a later triple to drive in a run in the 8th. His half-day off was been earned as has the love the national broadcast gave him in the bottom of the sixth inning for his improvements.

The streak of 13 consecutive games of allowing three runs or fewer came to an end because Cedric Mullins failed to take charge on a can of corn between him and DeLuca which allowed Jarren Duran to turn a routine out into a double. He came around to score on a sac fly, but Caminero put some more distance between the two clubs with this absolute laser into the center field bleachers that might have mortally wounded someone:

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That homer brought home Yandy Diaz, who made some history with his leadoff double becoming the 20th Cuban-born player to reach 1,000 career hits and kudos to the broadcast for calling that out:

Some final takeaways:

• 7th straight win and 13 of the last 14 with that very winnable game against Cleveland the only blemish of late. It still feels surreal given just how poorly the team stumbled out of the gate in many aspects of the game.
• 2026 Cedric Mullins feels more like 2012 Hideki Matsui every day. A roster move has to be made this weekend to bring Gavin Lux on the roster, and while Richie Palacios has an option and is the cleanest move, it just feels like it is time to move on from Mullins.
• Jesse Scholtens will have to do some work tomorrow a the bullpen has seen four guys used in each of the past two games. Mason Englert will likely work multiple innings in front of or behind Scholtens.
• Connelly Early, who gave the Rays fits last season, pitches tomorrow. We could see an outfield of Simpson/DeLuca/Vilade tomorrow. Hunter Feduccia will have to catch one of these four games and start against a lefty, so having both him and Mullins in the bottom of the lineup would be sub-optimal.