Red Sox and Rays in pitcher’s duel through four

Red Sox right-hander Clay Buchholz, who put together an extraoardinary 12-1, 1.74 ERA campaign in a season truncated by injury. has held the Rays scoreless through four innings as Boston looks to close out the best-of-three National League Division Series round. He pitched around three hits and two walks, striking out five -- including Matt Joyce with the bases loaded to end the fourth.

Rays starters Alex Cobb had arguably pitched just as well, if not better, but he was betrayed by the Rays defense, which has been surprisingly weak. After Jacoby Ellsbury opened the top of the first with a single to left and Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch, Dustin Pedroia grounded to third. Evan Longoria made the play and threw to Ben Zobrist at second, but Victorino spilled him on a hard, clean slide, causing the relay throw to first to go astray. Ellsbury came home on the wild throw, and though Cobb bent -- walking David Ortiz -- but retired Mike Napoli and Daniel Nava to escape the inning with just one run scoring. He's allowed two hits, walked two, and struck out four.

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