Rays Romp Red Sox, 16-5
BOSTON (AP) -- Sam Fuld went 4 for 6 with a two-run homer, drove in three runs and fell a single shy of the cycle to help the Tampa Bay Rays bust out of an early season slump with a 16-5 win over the Boston Red Sox on Monday night.
Johnny Damon had three hits, including a solo homer, and three RBIs, and John Jaso and Reid Brignac also drove in three runs apiece for the Rays.
Tampa Bay came in hitting a major-league worst .163 and had scored just 20 total runs, the fewest after nine games since the 2003 Detroit Tigers -- a team that finished 43-119.
Boston's loss came in Carl Crawford's first game against his former team. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a solo homer for the Red Sox.
Crawford, who spent 12 years in the Rays' organization before leaving to sign a $142-million, 7-year contract with the Red Sox in December, went 2 for 5, raising his average to .163.
Jeremy Hellickson (1-1) gave up two runs, five hits, walked five and struck out one in 5 1-3 innings to earn the win.
Fuld doubled into the left-field corner in his last at-bat in the ninth.
The Rays, who led for just two innings all season, jumped ahead 1-0 on Damon's homer in the first and never trailed.
Damon, a key contributor to Boston's 2004 World Series title team that ended an 86-year championship drought, was greeted with the usual boos he's received since signing with the Yankees following the 2005 season. Before the noise subsided, he belted Daisuke Matsuzaka's first pitch into the Rays' bullpen for his second homer.
It got a lot worse for Matsuzaka (0-2) in the second -- and the boos were much louder for him. Tampa Bay sent 10 batters to the plate, scoring six runs on three consecutive two-run hits after the right-hander loaded the bases with no outs. Jaso made it 3-0 with a two-run double, and Brignac drove in a pair with a single before Fuld hooked his two-run shot around the Peksy Pole in right.
Matsuzaka lasted just two-plus innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits.
Adrian Gonzalez's RBI triple cut it to 6-1 in the third.
The Rays added a run on Damon's RBI single in the fourth before David Ortiz tripled and scored on J.D. Drew's single in the bottom half.
Ortiz became the only AL player with at least one triple in each of the last 12 seasons.
Ben Zobrist's two-run double chased reliever Tim Wakefield and made it 12-2 in the sixth.
(© Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
