Rays cut Boston's wild-card lead to three

BOSTON -- Red Sox shortstop Marco Scutaro had to dodge a broken bat and wound up letting the go-ahead single go through his legs Thursday night as the Rays beat the Red Sox, 9-2, and cut their deficit in the AL wild-card race to three games.

The Red Sox dropped to 3-11 in September to fall from first in the division to 41/2 games behind the Yankees and into a race with the Rays for the wild-card. Boston and Tampa Bay play three more times at Fenway Park this weekend.

B.J. Upton broke a scoreless tie in the third inning with his bat-aided RBI single, and Evan Longoria followed with a three-run homer. Casey Kotchman added a two-run shot in the sixth to make it 6-1, and in the seventh Upton hit a two-run homer and Kotchman added an RBI single.

Jeremy Hellickson (13-10) allowed one run, three hits and four walks in 5 2/3 innings. Kyle Weiland (0-2) pitched three-plus innings, giving up four runs, three hits and two walks.

Weiland retired his first seven batters before John Jaso doubled and, one out later, Desmond Jennings walked. Upton sent a grounder toward short, with the barrel of his bat arriving at about the same time as the ball.

Scutaro hopped out of the way as the bat went under his left foot and the ball went between his legs, allowing Jaso to score. Longoria followed with his 27th homer into the Red Sox bullpen for a 4-0 lead.

It was 6-1 when Upton hit the first pitch he saw from Matt Albers, the fifth of seven Boston pitchers, over the Green Monster.

Although the paid attendance of 38,071 was officially the team's 705th consecutive sellout, much of the game was played under a steady drizzle and it finished with only a few thousand fans in their seats.

Josh Beckett (12-5), who was out with a sprained right ankle, is scheduled to start tonight against James Shields (15-6), who is 1-8 at Fenway.AP