Red Sox squander big lead to Rays

BOSTON — Austin Meadows hit a tying, inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning, Nelson Cruz had a goahead single in the 10th and the Tampa Bay Rays rallied from a six-run deficit to beat the Boston Red Sox 11-10 on Monday.

The AL East-leading Rays took advantage of four errors, the biggest when center fielder Alex Verdugo appeared to lose Cruz’s high fly in the sun with bases loaded and two outs in the fourth.

The ball glanced off Verdugo’s glove and Cruz wound up circling the bases on the play, scoring on second baseman Taylor Motter’s wild throw that let Tampa Bay close to 7-5 against ace Chris Sale.

Cruz also homered and had a pair of RBI singles as the Rays increased their AL East lead to 81 / 2games over New York. The Red Sox missed a chance to move ahead of the Yankees for the top AL wild-card spot.

The Red Sox led 9-8 when Meadows opened the ninth by hitting a full-count fastball from Garrett Whitlock (7-3) off the center field wall at Fenway Park, just out of reach of a leaping Verdugo. Boston fumbled the relay, allowing Meadows to beat the throw home.

Cruz singled home the tiebreaking run with one out in the 10th, then scored on a single by Brandon Lowe that right fielder Hunter Renfore threw away for an error. In all, the Rays scored six unearned runs.