The Red Sox opened the second half on Friday with a doubleheader against the first-place Rays at Fenway Park, the first of four games in three days after a May 9 rainout forced the clubs into a compressed schedule. Jake Bennett was set to start the 1:35 p.m. opener for Boston, with Griffin Jax going for the Rays.
It was the kind of day that turns a series into a test of depth as much as talent. Major League Baseball rules allowed both clubs to add a 27th man for the twin bill, and Boston used that spot on Alec Gamboa, who had made four major league appearances this season and allowed two runs in five innings in his debut. He also had pitched in 15 games, including six starts, for Triple-A Worcester, where he posted a 3.63 ERA and 43 strikeouts. The second game was scheduled for 7:10 p.m., though neither team had announced a starter for Game 2.
Friday mattered because it arrived immediately after a break that had done little to cool either club. Boston entered having won 14 of its last 16 games and nine straight on the road, while the Rays came in at 13-5 over their own stretch and held the best record in the American League by three games. The matchup also put Bennett in a familiar pressure spot. He had won three straight starts and gone at least seven innings in consecutive victories over the Angels and White Sox, including a July 8 outing against Chicago in which he allowed four hits in seven shutout innings.
But the Rays have already been the one place Bennett has not solved. He had lost two starts against them and carried a 6.97 ERA in 10⅓ innings against Tampa Bay, a hard edge to a day that was otherwise built around Boston’s hot run. On the other side, Jax came in having won four of his last five starts and striking out 10 over five innings in a July 6 loss to the Yankees. He was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in 15 career appearances, with just two career starts, and had already taken a four-inning no-decision at Fenway Park on May 7.
There was one more layer to the opener: Willson Contreras missed the game while finishing a five-game suspension and became eligible for the nightcap after being punished for his role in a bench-clearing brawl against the Nationals on June 30. That left the first game as the clearest marker of where the series stood now — Boston trying to keep its second-half surge rolling, and the Rays trying to protect the AL lead in a day that could change quickly if the extra innings of a doubleheader start to drain the bullpen.
