Ross, Doubront lead Sox past Rays

Cody Ross homered and drove in four of the five Red Sox runs, and Felix Doubront helped sustain an excellent run of starting pitching as the Sox defeated Tampa Bay, 5-3, at the Tropicana Dome.

Ross went 2-for-3 with a walk while matching a season high with his four RBI. He negotiated an eight-pitch walk with the bases loaded and two outs in the top of the first inning against Rays starter Matt Moore. Then, after a Marlon Byrd solo homer in the second gave the Sox a 2-0 lead, Ross crushed a two-out solo homer to center in the top of the third. After the Rays rallied to within a run, Ross gave the Red Sox breathing room with a two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning. Ross is tied for the Red Sox team lead in runs batted in with 27, and his seven homers are second on the team.

That was enough for Doubront, who featured an at-times overpowering mix, eliciting swings and misses on his fastball (which registered as high as 95 mph), cutter and change. Though inconsistent command resulted in the left-hander's yield of four walks, Doubront limited the damage to those two runs (one earned) in 5 2/3 innings, during which he allowed six hits (all but one of which was a single) while striking out seven. On the season, Doubront has averaged exactly one strikeout per inning, tallying 44 in each category.

The Red Sox virtually emptied their bullpen after Doubront (4-1) gave up a two-out double to put runners on second and third with Boston clinging to a 3-2 lead in the sixth. Rich Hill came on to retire fellow left-hander Luke Scott to end the sixth, Scott Atchison and Andrew Miller each recorded an out in the seventh and then Vicente Padilla recorded the last out of the seventh and two more (while also giving up a hit and hitting a batter) in the eighth, after Ross had given the team a 5-2 lead.

With runners on the corners and two outs in the eighth, the Sox elected to turn to closer Alfredo Aceves, who promptly gave up a run-scoring single to narrow the margin to two runs. But Aceves recovered to get an inning-ending groundout from Scott, then had a 1-2-3 ninth for his eighth save of the year.

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