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Tampa Bay beats Red Sox behind Evan Longoria’s big night

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Evan Longoria seems to be on his way to a strong finish for the Tampa Bay Rays.

Longoria had three hits, including his 20th home run of the year, Thursday night to take the Tampa Bay Rays to its third straight victory, a 4-2 decision over the Boston Red Sox.

Longoria now has at least 20 home runs in seven of eight seasons. In the history of the game, the only third basemen to hit at least 20 in their first seven of their eight years were Eddie Matthews (who did it all eight), Chipper Jones and Scott Rolen. He now has 11 hits in his last 23 at-bats.

For the Rays, Erasmo Ramirez went seven innings and gave up only four hits and two runs on a two-run homer by David Ortiz. Ortiz’s homer gave the Sox a 2-0 lead they held until the sixth when the Rays scored three.

Brad Boxberger got his 38th save.

The Rays are three games under .500 with nine to play.

Jake Odorizzi (8-8) pitches for the Rays tonight against Toronto.

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Gary Shelton is one of the most recognized and honored sportswriters in the history of the state. He has won the APSE's national columnist of the year twice and finished in the top 10 eight times. He was named the Florida Sportswriter of the Year six times. Gary joined SaintPetersBlog in the spring, helping to bring a sports presence to the website. Over his time in sports writing, Gary has covered 29 Super Bowls, 10 Olympics, Final Fours, Masters, Wimbledons and college national championships. He was there when the Bucs won a Super Bowl, when the Lightning won a Stanley Cup and when the Rays went to a World Series. He has seen Florida, FSU and Miami all win national championships, and he covered Bear Bryant, Bobby Bowden and Don Shula along the way. He and his wife Janet have four children: Eric, Kevin, K.C. and Tori. To contact, visit [email protected].

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