ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Rays moved into a tie with the Red Sox for the wild-card lead, beating the Yankees 5-2 on Monday night behind another strong performance by James Shields.
Shields came within one out of his 12th complete game, yielding six hits. Kyle Farnsworth finished for his 24th save, closing it out moments before the Red Sox lost 6-3 at Baltimore.
The Rays and Red Sox each have two games left.
B.J. Upton drove in two runs with a third-inning double off Hector Noesi. Kelly Shoppach homered for the second consecutive day for the Rays, who’ve won three straight and are 15-8 since Sept. 2, when they trailed Boston by nine games.
“It’s been a nice little run. All the stars have been aligned for us, and here we are,” Shields said. “This is what baseball is all about.”
Johnny Damon’s third-inning RBI single moved him into a tie with Lou Gehrig for 57th on the career hits list with 2,721.
“It’s great. We’re really into it. We feel good about this. We like our chances,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said.
“There’s a real strong believability about what we’re trying to accomplish right now,” the manager said. “It means something to be that far back at the beginning of this month and now we’re tied with a couple of games to go. That’s quite an accomplishment in and of itself. But when you get to this point, you really want to finish things off.”
Shields (16-12) left after walking Eric Chavez. Farnsworth got Jesus Montero to ground out with a crowd of 18,772 on its feet. The Yankees clinched the AL East title for the 12th time in 16 seasons last week.
