ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. _ The Rays made it a clean sweep of the majors-best Red Sox and their seven-game homestand with a 9-1 win on Sunday.
Left-hander Blake Snell led the way, working six solid innings, to improve to 16-5 and lower his ERA to 2.05, as the Rays won their season-high matching eighth straight overall and improved to 70-61.
The Rays jumped early on ex-mate Nathan Eovaldi, whom they traded to the Red Sox on July 25 for Jalen Beeks, scoring two in the first and three in the third. Eovaldi lasted only four innings.
The Rays came out swinging, opening the home first with hits by Joey Wendle, Matt Duffy and Ji-Man Choi to get one run then getting a sac fly from rookie Jake Bauers for the other.
In the third, they again rapped three straight hits with one out, by Duffy, Choi and Tommy Pham, for one run then got two more on a triple by Kevin Kiermaier.
Snell allowed only two hits over his six innings, striking out eight and walking one while throwing 89 pitches.
That was his 14th straight home start, going back to September 2017, of allowing one or no earned runs, the longest such streak in the majors since 1913, when such data was first compiled.
With the win, the Rays logged their 10th sweep of this season. They also posted their first undefeated multi-series homestand in franchise history, having won all four against the Royals before the Red Sox rolled in. And it was also the third time in franchise history the Rays swept a series of three or more games against the team with the best record in the majors.
It was the first time the Red Sox were swept this season, the first time on the road since Sept. 27, 2016 at New York and the first time by the Rays since May 23-25, 2014, at the Trop.
The Rays sure seem to be proving something.
"I don't think it's necessarily our job to prove or show to anybody but ourselves," manager Kevin Cash said before the game. "I think what we're gaining here is a bunch of young guys understanding we come to the ballpark to compete. It doesn't matter who we're playing, which is very cliche. But I don't think anybody in that clubhouse is saying, Hey, I want to prove to _ whether it's the media, the opposing team _ that we can do this.
"These guys came up to the big leagues with a lot of confidence and sometimes that confidence can get shaken just because it's so challenging, this game. But I think the more success we're having the more belief that we have in ourselves."
The Rays left after the game for Atlanta, where they open a two-game interleague series with the Braves on Tuesday.
