ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Clay Buchholz pitched six effective innings, Jason Bay drove in two runs and the Boston Red Sox hurt Tampa Bay’s playoff hopes with a 6-3 win over the Rays on Thursday night.

The Red Sox took 2 of 3 from the Rays — Boston’s first series win at Tropicana Field since Sept. 21-23, 2007 — to extend their AL wild-card advantage over Tampa Bay to six games. Texas trails Boston by three games.

Buchholz (4-3) allowed three runs and six hits. Bay, with 21 RBIs in his last 22 games, hit a two-run double that put the Red Sox ahead 2-0 in the first.

Evan Lorgoria had a run-scoring double for the Rays. The AL All-Star has 27 RBIs against the Red Sox this season. Since 1954, the most runs driven in against Boston during one season is 29, by Detroit Hall of Famer Al Kaline in 1959.

The announced crowd was 20,823, several thousand under the Rays’ home average of 23,992 starting the day. The three-games series drew just 57,663.

Boston took a 4-3 lead in the sixth when Mike Lowell hit a sacrifice fly. A run-scoring single by Victor Martinez and an RBI grounder from Kevin Youkilis made it 6-3 during the seventh.

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Tampa Bay left-hander David Price (7-7), who had a win and save out of the bullpen when the Rays beat Boston in last year’s AL championship series, gave up four runs and six hits in 5 1-3 innings.

Ben Zobrist hit an RBI single and Longoria drove in a run with double to tie it at 2 in the first.

Rocco Baldelli, a member of the 2008 Rays, put Boston up 3-2 on a second-inning solo homer. Tampa Bay pulled even at 3-all on Gregg Zaun’s RBI double in the fourth.

Billy Wagner and Daniel Bard each worked a scoreless inning before Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth for his 34th save.

Tampa Bay center fielder B.J. Upton left in the fifth with a sprained left ankle. He and left fielder Carl Crawford made contact on the warning track while going after Dustin Pedroia’s fly ball. Crawford caught the ball as Upton went down after taking an awkward step with his left ankle.

X-rays were negative and the Rays said Upton is day to day.

NOTES: Boston CF Jacoby Ellsbury stole two bases and leads the majors with 58. … Red Sox RHP Tim Wakefield (back) threw a 25-pitch bullpen session and might start Saturday’s game against the Chicago White Sox. … Boston manager Terry Francona said the plan is to have INF Jed Lowrie (left wrist) stay with Triple-A Pawtucket until the minor league season ends. … Red Sox 1B-OF Jeff Bailey, designated for assignment on Tuesday, was outrighted to Pawtucket. … Tampa Bay recalled INF Reid Brignac from Triple-A Durham. … Rays RHP Joe Nelson accepted an outright assignment to Durham.


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