The Rays and the Red Sox had an old-fashioned bad-blood rivalry early last decade, one that cooled off in animosity as the talent gap between the two clubs has narrowed. When these two American League East franchises meet, three big name players will be facing their former team.
That would be Carl Crawford, who played 10 seasons with the Rays and inked a large deal to take center field in Boston. Tampa will have former Sox "idiots" Johnny Damon and Manny Ramirez, who both did stints with other clubs after leaving Boston.
Kotaku reader Koolaider found Crawford's return to Tropicana Field, which takes place in real life on June 14, intriguing enough to play as one of his first games in MLB 11 The Show, which released this week.
The matchup of aces Josh Beckett (Boston) and David Price (Tampa Bay) dissolved into a home-run slugfest early. Beckett came out in the fifth inning, with reliever Hideki Okajima carrying the game the rest of the way. Price pitched to the eighth inning, but a home run and a single did him in.
The real story was in the firepower, with seven homers hit overall. The biggest blast came from Rays shortstop Sean Rodriguez, a three-run kong that gave Tampa Bay a 5-4 lead in the fourth.
With the Rays clinging to a 6-5 lead in the sixth, Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis singled and a passed ball put pinch-runner Darnell McDonald in scoring position with two outs. But Adrian Gonzalez, Boston's other big free agent pickup with Crawford, popped out to end the game. Here's the box score.
Remember, all you have to do to get yourself featured in Box Scores' Game of the Week is take a picture of whatever you've been playing - crappy cell picture will do - write up a couple sentences about why it was so compelling, and email it to me, owenATkotakuDOTcom, with "Box Scores" in the subject header. I will star all submitters, regardless of whether they are published. So be sure to include include your commenter handle, or your commenter page URL if it is different from your handle.
Now the Kotaku Sports open thread commences with the sports TV highlights for today and tomorrow. All times are U.S. Eastern.
College Hoops
Today and tomorrow will determine the champions of all the conferences as the NCAA tournament field is set and announced Sunday evening on CBS at 6. The title game breakdowns, today: MEAC (ESPN2, 2 p.m.) Southland (ESPN2, 4), Pac-10 (CBS, 6), Big 12 (ESPN, 6), MAC (ESPN2, 6), Mountain West (Versus, 6) Big West (ESPN2 8), Big East (ESPN, 9) and the WAC (ESPN2, 10).
Tomorrow, it's the SEC tournament championship (ABC, 1 p.m.) along with the ACC (ESPN, 1), Atlantic 10 (CBS, 1) and Big Ten (CBS, 3:30). The selection show, again, is on CBS at 6.
NBA
Sunday's only got one national game, the Orlando Magic at the Phoenix Suns, on ABC at 3:30.
NHL
The CBC has a tripleheader today, Montreal at Pittsburgh (2 p.m.) followed by Buffalo at Toronto (7) and Vancouver at Calgary (10). NBC has Chicago at Washington at 12:30 on Sunday.
Remember, you may send Game of the Week nominations to owenATkotakuDOTcom, and flag it "Box Scores" in the subject header. Please include your commenter handle for proper credit.
[Top image by Getty Images]