With their starting time pushed up an hour so fans could watch the beginning of the Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals, the Red Sox did a fantastic job last night of keeping the spotlight on themselves for as long as possible in a regular-season backyard barnburner.
A flurry of bad blood - a heated argument between Manny Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis, plus a real brawl between Coco Crisp and a bunch of Rays - and bad-luck episodes - injuries to Jacoby Ellsbury and Ramirez, easily overshadowed the actual baseball game, which the Red Sox won, 7-1, completing a sweep of the Rays and extending their lead in the AL East to 1 games. The benches-clearing, punches-flying fight in the second wound up with Crisp, Jonny Gomes and James Shields getting ejected after Crisp charged the mound when Shields hit him with a pitch.
Considering that Crisp was still steaming about stolen-base etiquette from the night before, some trouble could have been expected. But televised replays showing Ramirez apparently taking a swing at Youkilis before the two were separated just before the fifth inning started caught everyone by surprise. Details of the dispute remain under wraps for now, but the team chalked it up as just one of those things that happen in a very unordinary game. Captain Jason Varitek said the team will keep the incident in house.
Red Sox starter Jon Lester stayed away from most of the on-field nastiness, although a couple of wayward pitches (one behind the back of Willy Aybar in the sixth, the other an up-and-in one to Cliff Floyd in the seventh) caught the attention of the Rays. Lester went 6 innings, allowing just the one run and no walks, with five strikeouts and eight hits.
Sox Notes: Casey Kelly, whom Boston took yesterday with the 30th overall pick, features a two-seam fastball in the low 90s, a curveball, and a changeup. But Kelly throws another ball so well that his future might be in another sport. Kelly is one of the highest-ranked quarterback prospects in the nation and committed to Southeastern Conference powerhouse Tennessee out of Sarasota (Fla.) High School. Kelly is ranked as the No. 20 quarterback prospect by Scout.com. In a conference call late last night, Kelly said he wasn’t sure whether his future would be on the gridiron or the diamond.
