Alex Cobb News

Red Sox starter Jon Lester delivers against the Tampa Bay Rays during Wednesday night's game in St.

The Baltimore Orioles look to turn things around at Camden Yards on Friday, as they host the Tampa Bay Rays for the opener of a three- game series.

Fernando Rodney was so close to getting out of it unscathed. Rodney had walked three of the first four batters he had faced in the inning, but he was one strike away from escaping the self-inflicted jam and sealing the Rays' victory.

Middlebrooks had a three-run double off closer Fernando Rodney with two outs in the ninth inning that lifted the Red Sox past the Tampa Bay Rays 4-3 on Thursday night.

Top 4th: Rays 1, Red Sox 1 - David Ortiz roped a single to right field which bounced against the wall on a hop scoring Shane Victorino who had doubled.

Jon Lester stayed unbeaten, Stephen Drew hit his second career grand slam and the Boston Red Sox roughed up AL Cy Young winner David Price and the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 on Wednesday night.

Amazingly, it's the third time this season that has happened. Prior to that it had not happened since June 19, 2009.

The Red Sox need a series win, and, facing a team chasing them in the standings, now would be the time to get it.

THE CONTENTS: Following a rough homestand, the Red Sox kick off their first three-city trip of the season in St.

The opposite of a Devil Ray, however, is a Ray, and Gomes would know, because he's been both.

The way the Boston Red Sox look at it, a walk is as good as a hit, and a strikeout can be better than a groundout.

The Rays offense, defense and pitching all clicked this weekend as the Rays swept the Padres in a three-game series at the Trop.

Ever since their breakthrough season of 2008, the Rays have been renowned throughout baseball for two things: their pitching and their defense.

The Rays found different ways to commemorate Mother's Day, with 1B James Loney doing his own tribute, using 2Pac's Dear Mama as his walk-up song.

It was after the shock of seeing the line drive slam into the side of J.A. Happ's head had subsided a bit, after word spread through the Rays dugout that as scary as it seemed, Happ would be OK, when the Rays pitchers discussed ways to avoid such incidents.

The past two days have seen Rays starting pitchers rack up some crazy strikeout numbers.

FOR CHARITY: Evan Longoria and girlfriend Jaime Edmondson cross the finish line at the Miles for Moffitt 1-mile walk/run at USF.

Tickets: $14-210, available at Tropicana Field box office, Ticketmaster, raysbaseball.com, team Tampa store; $3 surcharge within 5 hours of game time.

The overnight check of the record books revealed a few more notable achievements Friday night by Rays RHP Alex Cobb.

On the field, a young Alex Cobb would go about his business hoping no one heard his mother, even though he knew everyone had.