The next thing he knew, Kelly was out of the game and the Tampa Bay Rays came back to beat the Red Sox 7-5 on Wednesday night.
“ The sixth inning has become a challenge for our rotation of late,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell.
After Kelly gave up four straight singles and forced in a run with a walk, Brandon Guyer had a two-run, pinch-hit single off reliever Craig Breslow in Tampa Bay’s four-run sixth to tie it.
“I didn’t get ahead of hitters,” Kelly said. “ In the sixth inning, I tried to get too fine with (the fastball) and fell behind hitters. I had to come back and throw it down the middle and they got some hits on ‘em.”
Breslow barely had time to warm up before giving up Guyer’s game-tying hit.
“Joe was in such control of the game and things happened pretty quickly,” Breslow said. “ Still, I had a chance to limit the damage, and it didn’t happen.”
After a tiebreaking run scored on Desmond Jennings’ double- play grounder in the seventh, Jake Elmore gave the Rays a 7- 5 advantage with his solo home run off Edward Mujica (1-1) on his first atbat with Tampa Bay.
Brad Boxberger ( 1- 1) struck out all three batters he faced in the seventh to help Tampa Bay stop a fourgame skid. Steve Geltz pitched the ninth for his first career save.
Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz homered for Boston.
Pedroia hit a two- run shot off Nathan Karns during a three-run third as the Red Sox took a 3- 1 lead. Hanley Ramirez scored the other run from first base on Mike Napoli’s single that went off Karns’ glove and ended up in center field.
Ortiz made it 4- 1 on a fifth-inning solo homer. The designated hitter moved past Joe DiMaggio into 46th place on the career RBI list with 1,538, and also broke a tie with Chipper Jones for 32nd place on the homer list with his 469th shot.
Mookie Betts had a runscoring single in the sixth for Boston.
Steven Souza Jr. put the Rays up 1- 0 with a firstinning homer. He departed after striking out to the end the sixth due to a right forearm cramp.
Trainer’s room
Red Sox: RF Shane Victorino left after four innings with right hamstring tightness.
Rays: LHP Drew Smyly (left shoulder) will rejoin the rotation Friday. … RHP Alex Cobb (forearm) could have his first bullpen session Friday. … 1B James Loney (oblique) is nearing a short minor league rehab assignment.
Starting time
Red Sox: Kelly gave up five runs and eight hits in 5- plus innings. He struck out seven and walked one.
Rays: Karns allowed five runs, seven hits, four walks and had three strikeouts over six innings.
More Big Papi
Ortiz has the second-most homers against Tampa Bay with 45. Only Alex Rodriguez, with 49, has more. Ortiz has the most RBIs, 153, against the Rays. … He has 30 homers and 76 RBIs at Tropicana Field, the most for any visiting player.
Up next
Red Sox: Tonight’s starter Clay Buchholz ( 1- 2, 6.06 ERA) has not allowed an earned run over 14 innings in winning both of his starts at Tampa Bay since 2013.
Rays: RHP Jake Odorizzi ( 2- 1, 1.74 ERA) plans to attack the strike zone in tonight’s start against Boston, which entered Wednesday leading the AL with 63 walks. “They work at-bats,” Odorizzi said.
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