ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Red Sox's first tough stretch this season begins tonight in Oakland, where Boston will open up a three-game series.
But thanks to the Devil Rays, the Sox won't exactly be well rested when they take the field against the Athletics.
Tampa Bay hosted Boston last night in the finale of a four-game series. Right after the game, the Red Sox grabbed a charter flight to San Francisco, where the team stays when it plays Oakland.
Boston officials had asked the Rays' management to switch yesterday's game to an afternoon starting time. But the Devil Rays turned that down.
"It's not good," said Boston manager Grady Little
of the travel woes. "I guess it had to do with their expectations for the crowd. They know the Boston Red Sox are a pretty good draw. They want to get as many people as they can out here. We tried to get them to change, but you can see, they didn't."
Last night's crowd of 11,564 was the smallest of the four games. The other crowds were 12,598, 17,972 and 15,920.
Not that Little was going to complain too strenuously, saying that at some point during a season, every team has similar travel troubles.
"It's a tough trip, but when I managed in the Southern League, we'd go by bus from Memphis to Savannah. It was a 15-hour trip. We'd stop at one point and change drivers it was so long."
Pedro Martinez
, who flew to San Francisco early yesterday afternoon so he would be as rested as possible, will start tonight. The sinus problem that affected him in his last start seemed to have cleared up, Little said.
No repercussions
Neither team was expecting a carryover from Sunday's game in which there were three hit batsman and one thrown bat.
"We won't initiate anything, but if the other team takes shots at us, we will retaliate," said Little.
Streaky results
Johnny Damon
reached on an infield single in the first inning, extending his hitting streak to 16 games and tying a personal best. It's the third 16-gamer of his career. The others came in 1999 and 2000.
But another Damon streak came to an end. Damon, who was thrown out on his first attempt to steal as a member of the Red Sox, had swiped 10 in a row before being gunned down by Toby Hall
after his leadoff single.
Having a good run
Rey Sanchez
, who has batted ninth for the most part this season, has been a veritable RBI machine.
Sanchez, who started at second base, lofted a run-scoring double in the second and grounded an RBI single through the left side in the fourth. The RBI boosted Sanchez's total to 13, a solid total considering he has only three extra-base hits all year -- two doubles and a homer.
He has had at least one RBI in eight of his last 10 starts. Hs career high is 56 RBI, achieved in 1999, while he was with the Royals. But the 11-year veteran has never had as many as 40 in any other season.
Memorable milestone
A day after Frank Castillo
notched the 1,000th strikeout of his major-league career, the right-hander still was relishing the feat.
"That was huge for me," said the 10-year-veteran, who relies on location and changes of speed for his success. "Not many people gave me a chance to pitch in the big leagues. I'm not exactly a strikeout pitcher."
The milestone came against Greg Vaughn
for the second out of the second inning on Sunday. Castillo wanted the baseball as a souvenir, but he didn't want to embarrass Vaughn by stopping the game to roll the ball into the Red Sox dugout.
So he kept using it, hoping it wouldn't be fouled out of play. It wasn't. Castillo fanned the next hitter, Jason Conti
, with catcher Jason Varitek
hanging onto a foul tip for the third strike. Varitek rolled the ball to the mound, whereupon Castillo picked it up and carried it to the dugout.
Extra bases
Brian Daubach
made his first start of the season in left field, with Manny Ramirez
serving as the designated hitter last night. Daubach started six games in left a year ago, the last time on Sept. 26 at home against Baltimore . . . Doug Mirabelli
once again caught Darren Oliver
. He made an outstanding diving catch of a fouled bunt, and knocked in the Sox' first run with a bad-hop infield single . . . Tony Clark
stretched his modest hitting streak to three games, tying his season high. But when he bounced into an inning-ending double play in the third Clark fell to 0-for-5 with the bases loaded this year and to 2-for-25 (.080) with runners in scoring position . . . Trenton left-hander Chris Elmore
was named the Eastern League pitcher of the week. Elmore, 25, went 2-0 with a 1.50 earned-run in a pair of complete-game wins.
