Jahmai Jones said he feels the Boston Red Sox have grown this week, and perhaps he has a point.
After Trevor Story’s late homer led Boston to a win in the finale of its previous series, the Red Sox will look to capture the decisive contest of their current set on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Jones homered from the designated hitter position in Friday’s 4-2 victory over the Rays. He said the two games more resembled the way Boston has played during the second half of 2026.
“We’ve had some big performances. I feel like it’s a different guy every night,” said Jones, who notched his sixth homer of the season in a night in which Roman Anthony went deep and had three RBIs.
“Everybody in here knows what we’re playing for. I feel we’ve had a lot of tight ball games. That last one in Texas (on Thursday) and then (Friday showed) who we are and what our baseball is.”
The Red Sox (84-71) saw their momentum slowed on Saturday, however, with a 2-1 setback to the Rays (94-60). They enter the game comfortably in line for the second wild card in the American League.
Richie Palacios had an RBI single in the ninth inning to score Junior Caminero with the winning run. It marked the third walk-off win of the season-ending homestand for Tampa Bay.
“We’re just relentless. No matter what’s going on in the game, we always feel like we have a chance to win,” Palacios said. “Three walk-offs is amazing, and we’re just going to continue to do what we do.”
Tampa Bay has won seven of its past eight games overall to move five games ahead of the second-place New York Yankees in the American League East. The teams each have eight games remaining on their schedule — four of them against each other. The teams open their series Tuesday in New York with a doubleheader.
“It’s very encouraging. It’s a good feeling,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said following Saturday’s game. “You want to get as many reps at that as possible, because we know the games that we’re going to continue playing this year are going to be against good teams and in tight ballgames.”
Tampa Bay right-hander Griffin Jax (7-10, 3.80 ERA) is scheduled to start on Sunday.
Jax scattered two hits over five scoreless innings and struck out seven in five innings of a no-decision against the Athletics last Tuesday. The Rays won 2-1.
He is 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in two starts against Boston this season. He is 0-2 with a 7.86 ERA in 16 career appearances (three starts) against the Red Sox.
Boston left-hander Patrick Sandoval (1-6, 4.99) is the scheduled starter on Sunday. He has lost his past six decisions heading into Sunday’s game, most recently a 4-2 setback to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday. He yielded four runs on four hits in 2 2/3 innings and threw 68 pitches.
Sandoval is 0-3 with a 3.67 ERA in nine games (eight starts) against the Rays.
The Red Sox would love to welcome back Ceddanne Rafaela, who suffered a right quadriceps strain on Sept. 2 in a game against the Seattle Mariners and was placed on the 10-day injured list. He was hitting .282 with 16 home runs, 32 doubles and 70 RBIs to go along with 17 stolen bases.
–Field Level Media
