St. Petersburg Times: Red Sox retake first from Rays 5-1

Josh Beckett delivered a strong pitching performance in a 5-1 win victory over Tampa Bay, handing the Rays their fifth straight loss at Fenway and dropping them from first place for the first time in 10 days. However, what likely caught the eyes of the national cable audience and 37,474 at Fenway Park — and drew the ire of Maddon — was what appeared to be a retaliatory play by Coco Crisp.

Maddon took issue with Crisp’s hard slide during a stolen-base attempt in the eighth; Crisp’s spikes appeared to hit Akinori Iwamura’s feet and his elbow landed near Iwamura’s midsection. As a result, Iwamura was knocked off the bag and a fuming Maddon came out of the dugout.

Crisp told reporters he was upset by a “little shady” play in the sixth by Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett, whom he said dropped his knee down while Crisp dove headfirst into second, jamming Crisp’s left thumb. Crisp said he warned Bartlett that he would “show him how I felt about it” if he got on base again. But when asked if he was intending to hurt Iwamura, Crisp replied, “If I was intending to injure him, I wouldn’t have slid at all.”
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“I was not pleased with the slide,” Maddon said. “I totally felt there was intent to hurt our middle infielder, and that’s what I was upset with.”

I’m going to guess that the often control-challenged Grant Balfour might make an appearance tomorrow, since he could point to his career walk totals as an alibi.