Jason Bay got his time with the Boston Red Sox off on the right foot.
One day after being part of the three-team deal that sent disgruntled Boston outfielder Manny Ramirez to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Bay scored the winning run in the 12th inning as the Red Sox beat the Oakland Athletics 2-1 on Friday night.
Bay, who tripled off the wall in left with two outs in the 12th, scored both of Boston’s runs, reached base four times and made two run-saving catches near the left field line.
“It definitely ranks up there with one of the better moments I’ve had,” said Bay, who was an All-Star outfielder with Pittsburgh.
When he scored on Jed Lowrie’s infield single, Bay was quickly part of a mob celebration during which he was hugged by new teammate David Ortiz.
“Having met these guys eight hours ago, everybody’s been extremely positive,” Bay said. “You jump around with those guys, I felt like I’d been here all year. We were like little kids.”
Bay hit his triple off Alan Embree (1-4). The ball went high up on the Green Monster and his teammates thought it was gone.
“We all did,” said Lowrie, who drove in both runs. “We jumped up on the top step.”
In other AL games on Friday, it was: Tampa Bay 5, Detroit 2; Los Angeles 1, New York 0; Chicago 4, Kansas City 2; Minnesota 4, Cleveland 1; Texas 9, Toronto 8; and Baltimore 10, Seattle 5.
Mike Timlin (4-3) got the win. He was the last of five relievers who allowed one run in 5 2-3 innings. It was just the second win in seven games for second-place Boston, which remained three games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East.
Jack Cust’s 20th homer in the eighth made it 1-1 for Oakland, which is 2-13 in its past 15 games.
Bay, batting fifth, received standing ovations when his name was announced with the lineups before the game and again when he came up for the first time.
“I didn’t really know what to do,” he said. “It was all new to me. It was very flattering.”
Embree said the trade might turn out well for both teams and the players involved.
“It sounds like it was time for a change of scenery for both sides,” the veteran reliever said. “Hopefully both sides end up walking away from this and going, ‘OK, I can live with it.”’
Rays 5, Tigers 2
Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria hit solo homers and Tampa Bay’s bullpen limited Detroit to one hit over the last 4 1-3 innings.
Grant Balfour (3-1) struck out three of the four batters he faced to get the victory. Troy Percival worked the ninth to finish the four-hitter and get his 24th save.
Pena hit his 19th homer off Zach Miner (5-4) to snap a 2-2 tie in the sixth. Longoria hit No. 20 off Joel Zumaya to make it 5-2 in the seventh.
Angels 1, Yankees 0
Torii Hunter hit an RBI single off Mariano Rivera in the ninth, and Ervin Santana (12-5) pitched eight stellar innings as Los Angeles won its fifth straight.
Rivera gave up a run for the third straight time when no save was involved. He is 26-of-26 in save chances.
After walking Mark Teixeira to start the inning, Rivera (4-4) gave up a single to Vladimir Guerrero to put runners at the corners before Hunter lined a single up the middle.
Los Angeles is 7-1 on its road trip through Baltimore, Boston and New York.
Sidney Ponson allowed two hits in seven innings for New York, which lost for the fifth time in six games.
White Sox 4, Royals 2
Ken Griffey Jr. drove in two runs in his debut with Chicago and Javier Vazquez won for the first time in seven starts.
Clinging to a half-game lead over Minnesota in the AL Central after losing four of five, the White Sox traded with Cincinnati for the 38-year-old slugger.
Batting seventh for the first time since his rookie season in 1989, Griffey fought off a tough pitch from Luke Hochevar (6-9) with two strikes, then lined a two-out single up the middle for the game’s first run. Griffey made it 2-0 with an RBI single in the sixth and he scored on Juan Uribe’s single to make it 4-0. He went 2-for-3 in his first AL game since 1999.
Vazquez (8-9) allowed two runs and five hits over six innings, winning for the first time since June.
Twins 4, Indians 1
Joe Mauer’s two-run homer in the seventh spoiled another strong start by Cleveland’s Jeremy Sowers.
Mauer’s seventh homer broke a 1-1 tie and Brendan Harris added an RBI double to back Nick Blackburn (8-6), who gave up one run and six hits in seven innings as Minnesota won for the sixth time in seven games.
For the second straight start against Minnesota, Sowers (1-6) took a perfect game into the sixth. This time, Harris doubled to break it up and he scored on a bloop single by Carlos Gomez for a 1-0 lead.
Rangers 9, Blue Jays 8
the bases.
Murphy, who drove in four runs, hit a grounder just past a diving Scott Rolen at third to bring in the tying and winning runs.
C.J. Wilson (2-2) picked up the win despite allowing two runs in the ninth.
Orioles 10, Mariners 5
Garrett Olson threw eight scoreless innings before running into trouble in the ninth. Olson (8-5) was working on an eight-hitter before the Mariners chased him during a five-run ninth. He was charged with three runs and 11 hits in a career-best 8 1-3 innings.
Olson, making his 26th career start, had never gone longer than seven innings.
Jarrod Washburn (5-10) gave up six runs and nine hits over 4 2-3 innings.
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