Friday night, the Enforcer. Last night, the ninth inning Hero! (photo by Keith Allison, c/o flickr.com)

Last night was one of those Red Sox games that leaves you breathless — a real pitcher’s duel that ends in dramatic fashion. My hero of Friday night’s loss, Salty the Enforcer, was again the hero with a pinch hit, walk-off dinger in the ninth to give the Sox a 3-2 win over those dreaded Rays.

The Rays’ pitcher, David Price, managed to keep the Red Sox bats quite through the first five innings. In the bottom of the sixth, they finally broke the scoreless tie scoring one run to take a slim lead late in the game.

Dustin Pedroia led off the inning with a walk and David Ortiz followed with a single, moving Pedroia to second. Adrian Gonzalez smacked a single to BJ Upton in center field who threw a BB to home cutting down Pedy trying to score from second. Will Middlebrooks then shot one up the middle that deflected off the second baseman and allowed Ortiz to score the first run of the game.

On the pitching side for the Sox, Josh Beckett pitched another beauty. He went seven innings, giving up four hits and two earned runs while striking out five. He pitched six innings of one-hit, shutout ball and seemed to be rolling right along. But in the top of the seventh, the Rays took advantage of a tiring Beckett and managed to plate two runs on a combination three singles and heads up base running. Rays up 2-1.

With one chance left for some do or die heroics, the Red Sox had a tough road ahead of them in the bottom of the ninth. The Rays sent in their closer Fernando Rodney who was going for his 16th save in 16 attempts. (Does it annoy anyone else that he wears he hat crooked, because in incenses me! Seriously…shouldn’t there be rule against that?)

Daniel Nava lead off the ninth with an eight-pitch walk. Pinch hitter Nick Punto came in and laid down a successful sacrifice moving Nava up to second. Jarrod Saltalamacchia came in to pinch hit for Marlon Byrd, who had been 0 for 3 with two strike outs, and hit the second pitch he saw from Rodney over the center field fence for his first career walk-off homerun. This happened to also be the first walk-off win for the Red Sox this season.

Needless to say Fenway Park went completely mental and Salty was mobbed at home plate as is the custom with the Red Sox for walk-off wins. He emerged from the pile missing his shirt which was ripped from his body by an exuberant Big Papi. Salty told reporters after the game:

“Well, obviously tonight was awesome. I met the shredder for the first time,” Saltalamacchia said.

The shredder is what the Red Sox call the mob of players who jump all over the walk-off hero.

“Well, the shredder got me good,” Saltalamacchia said. “It got my shirt and my necklace. He got it all tonight. That’s a great feeling.”

Click here for the heart-stopping box score, courtesy of the Red Sox. The Sox and Rays will finish up the series today at 1:35pm with Clay Buccholz (4-2, 7.84 ERA) facing off against Jeremy Hellickson (4-1, 2.73 ERA).

The Boston Red Sox beat Tampa Bay again this afternoon at Fenway Park, pushing their winning streak to three in a row.

I got to go to this game – it was my first trip to Fenway this year – and as always, it was a lot of fun.  We spent some time before the game grabbing some lunch at the Bleacher Bar, our usual haunt, and looking around the anniversary bricks that the Red Sox placed in the floor of the concourse.  A friend of ours had gotten a brick for her father, and she had asked us to find it (our directions: “it’s somewhere near the Yaz plaque,” which makes a lot more sense once you’re there), and snap a picture of it for her.

David Ortiz greets Cody Ross at the plate following Ross's three-run home run (credit: Amanda Laws)

We settled into our seats just before a Harvard University student on a Jackie Robinson scholarship sang the national anthem.  Today was the 65th anniversary of Robinson breaking baseball’s color barrier, so every player wore number 42 to recognize the date (this made it a little hard to keep track of who was who, but it was cool nonetheless).

The game was a good one – I kept track of it using my Eephus scorebook.  Boston took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a three-run home run by Cody Ross, who sent Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz home.  The Sox tacked on another run in the fourth inning, when Kelly Shoppach doubled home David Ortiz.  Ortiz, by the way, had a three-for-four day at the plate, capped off with a run-scoring double in the sixth following a Youkilis walk.  Mike Aviles broke a 4-4 tie when he led off the seventh inning with a solo shot to center field.

My scorecard for today's game.

Meanwhile, Boston starter Felix Doubront kept the Rays bats relatively quiet until the fifth inning – the only Rays runner to even sniff home plate was Jeff Keppinger, who got caught in a rundown between third and home when he tried to score from second on a Sean Rodriguez base hit to end the Tampa Bay fourth.  Tampa finally got some runs on the board in the fifth inning when Carlos Pena lined a two-run double to right center field, before Evan Longoria hit a ground-rule double of his own to score Pena.  Luke Scott (who got a hearty Boston welcome each time he came to bat) launched a solo home run in the sixth inning.

Both bullpens pitched well – after Doubront was taken out following Scott’s home run, Scott Atchison, Vicente Padilla, Franklin Morales, and Alfredo Aceves combined to hold Tampa scoreless, and pick up the win (Padilla) and the save (Aceves).  Rays starter Matt Moore, who was tagged with the loss, turned the ball over to Joel Peralta with one out in the seventh innings.  Peralta and Fernando Rodney (who, I’m pretty sure, the Fenway announcer and scoreboard called Frank Rodney) kept Boston off the basepaths the rest of the way.

Here’s a link to the box, courtesy of the Red Sox.  Boston goes for the sweep tomorrow when Daniel Bard takes to the mound against David Price for the 11:05 a.m. Patriot’s Day matchup.