ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.

Alfredo Aceves had another successful spot start.

Aceves threw six solid innings, Daniel Nava homered and the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 2-1 on Wednesday night.

“Ace gave us a huge lift today,” Boston manager John Farrell said. “He did an excellent job, and the bullpen came in and was stellar. This was a very good series to win here and Ace had a lot to do with that.”

Boston won two of three in the series, which dropped the fourth-place Rays five games behind the Red Sox.

“They did a nice job against us because we’ve been scoring a lot of runs,” Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. “They’ve gotten us this year in a lot of close games and we have to figure out a way to beat them.”

Aceves (3-1), recalled before the game from Triple-A Pawtucket, allowed one run, four hits and four walks. This is the right-hander’s third stint with the Red Sox this season.

Aceves allowed one run over six innings in another spot start on May 27, a 9-3 win over Philadelphia.

Nava put the Red Sox up 2-0 on a third-inning, two-run homer off Chris Archer (1-2), who gave up two runs, four hits, four walks and struck out seven over four innings.

Evan Longoria got the Rays within 2-1 on a solo homer in the sixth. He has gone deep in three consecutive games after homering just once over his previous 26.

Andrew Bailey, the fourth Boston reliever, pitched the ninth for his seventh save in nine opportunties. After Craig Breslow allowed a twoout double in the eighth Kelly Johnson, Koji Uehara entered and struck out Longoria.

Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single and scored on Nava’s two-out shot in the third. He also stole two bases in the game, giving him 29 for the year. Ellsbury has scored a run in 10 consecutive games, and stolen a base five straight games.

Tampa Bay loaded the bases by drawing three walks from Aceves in the second, but failed to score when Yunel Escobar hit an inning-ending grounder.

Aceves worked out of a twoon, no-out jam in the third by striking out Johnson and getting a double-play grounder by Longoria.

Rays first baseman James Loney made a strong defensive play in the first, diving to his right to take away a potential two-out RBI single from David Ortiz.

Note — Red Sox pitcher Clay Buchholz played catch for the first time since leaving his start last Saturday with neck stiffness. He might return to the rotation Sunday or Tuesday.

• Who: Boston Red Sox at
Baltimore Orioles.
• Where: Camden Yards.
• When: 7:05 p.m. tonight.
• Starting pitchers: Boston
(Felix Doubront 4-3) vs. Baltimore (Kevin Gausman 0-
3).
• TV: NESN.