Ray Ban

Maybe the pressure was off for the Sox with the Celtics and '24' the headliners. In any event, they came into the Trop led by Clay Buchholz who had a quality start (6 innings, one earned run) en route to his sixth win.

Buchholz among the AL ERA leaders, now 6-3 with a 3.07 ERA. Not hard to see why Tampa is in first place...all five starters among the elite.

The Sox outhomered the Rays 2-1, with David Ortiz (9) and Kevin Youkilis going grove yard.

Additionally, the Sox had another errorless game and have crept up to 5th in the AL in fielding percentage, just one component of good overall defense.

Minor Inconvenience. The Sox upper minor league teams struggled, with the PawSox garnering only one hit in a shutout loss, and Portland getting whacked 7-2. Salem was idle.