BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox played until early Monday morning before finishing off a win against the rival Yankees.

It wasn’t the best way to get ready for a hot pitcher and the majors’ hottest team.

Matt Moore pitched a twohitter for his first career shutout and the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Red Sox 3-0 on Monday night to move within a half-game of first place in the AL East.

“They came in playing good baseball. We talked about it before the game, it’s going to be a tough series for us,” Boston right fielder Shane Victorino said. “You know it’s not the end of the world. People are going to make whatever about it. We’re still in first place, they’re still a half game behind us. We still control our own destiny and again it’s not the end of the season.”

Coming off an 11-inning, 8- 7 win over New York in a game that lasted 4 hours, 46 minutes and wasn’t completed until just before 1 a.m., the Red Sox offense was shut down by Moore.

“Overall a very well pitched game on both sides, but Matt Moore was the story of the night,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said.

Boston had a decent outing by rookie Brandon Workman, making his second career start — and first at Fenway Park — but it wasn’t enough to keep the Rays from adding another victory in their current run up the East standings.

“He obviously threw the ball really well,” said Workman, who gave up two runs on seven hits in six innings. “That was impressive to watch.”

Workman enjoyed his first career Fenway start.

“Coming off the series we had against the Yankees, the energy in the stadium was amazing,” the 24-year old right-hander said. “It was like that again tonight.”

Ben Zobrist had three hits and James Loney drove in two runs for the Rays, who earned their sixth consecutive victory and won for the 18th time in 20 games.

In his first start since pitching a scoreless fifth inning in the All-Star game, Moore (14- 3) gave up Mike Napoli’s single in the second and David Ortiz’s base-hit in the seventh. Ortiz took second on a wild pitch — the only baserunner to get past first.

Moore walked one batter, struck out four and needed just 109 pitches to win his sixth consecutive start. The Rays have lost just twice since June 28, improving from fourth place and seven games out to within one win of the division lead.

Workman, who took a nohitter into the seventh inning in his other start, allowed three straight singles to start the game before Loney made it 1-0 on a sacrifice fly.

Loney, who rejoined the team from the paternity list on Sunday, also had a runscoring single in the fifth. Loney was the only established major-leaguer acquired by Boston in last-season’s salary-dumping trade that sent Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Desmond Jennings drove in the third run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth off Jose De La Torre.

Yunel Escobar, who hadn’t played since the All-Star break because of a right hamstring strain, returned to the lineup for Tampa Bay and went 1-for-2 with two walks and a run. He played errorless defense at shortstop for the 53rd consecutive game, a club record.

Notes — The Boston Red Sox said a second opinion on Clay Buchholz’s right shoulder showed no significant structural damage. … In his last six starts, all wins, Moore has a 1.50 ERA. … Wil Myers sat out the game with a sore left wrist. … The Red Sox are 9-4 against the Rays this season. … In Workman’s previous start, he had his no-hit bid broken up by Coco Crisp’s infield hit to start the seventh inning. … All 10 hits in the game were singles.