Game of the Day | Rays beat Boston to increase AL East lead over Red Sox

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — No punches, no angry words exchanged.

With first place on the line in the AL East, the Tampa Bay Rays and Boston Red Sox stuck to playing baseball Monday night.

James Shields scattered five hits over 6-1/3 innings and B.J. Upton and Gabe Gross homered, helping the Rays remain unbeaten at home against the Red Sox with a 5-4 victory that hiked their lead to 1 ½ games in the division.

"This is an intense series," Boston's Mike Lowell said. "I know there's a little history, but I think both teams played good baseball."

The Rays (50-32), surprising owners of the best record in baseball, have won six of seven and shrugged off a six-game losing streak to Boston, which is 6-0 against Tampa Bay at Fenway Park but 0-4 at Tropicana Field.

It was the first meeting between the combative division rivals since their much talked about June 5 benches-clearing brawl at Fenway that led to the suspensions of eight players, including Shields (6-5).

Both managers said beforehand that they didn't anticipate any carryover from the melee that ensued after Shields hit Coco Crisp in the leg with a pitch during the second inning of a 7-1 Tampa Bay loss.

"I knew from both sides nothing was going to happen. It was over," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We're professionals, they're professionals, and all that business is in the past."

Shields was suspended for six games for his part in the brawl. This time, he limited Boston to two runs before Tampa Bay's bullpen barely held on to hand the Red Sox their 11th straight one-run road loss.

Grant Balfour bailed the Rays out of a jam in the seventh, and J.P. Howell got the final out of the ninth after Boston scored twice on Brandon Moss' RBI double and Jason Varitek's sacrifice fly off Troy Percival to trim the Red Sox's deficit to one run.

Percival limped off the mound after appearing to tweak a sore hamstring backing up the plate on Varitek's sacrifice fly. Percival had an animated argument with Maddon before leaving.

"Percy was very upset, and I knew he was going to be very upset. He and I go way back, and everything's going to be fine between he and I," Maddon said. "He's been [closing games] for years and I know he wants to be the last man standing, but I have to do what I believe is right at that particular moment."

The 38-year-old closer apologized to the manager.

"I hate coming off the mound in the middle of the inning — don't like doing it, and it's embarrassing — but Joe did the right thing. ... I know better than to act like that. The situation got the better of me."

J.D. Drew hit his 16th homer for Boston, cutting Shields' lead to 4-2 in the sixth. It gave him 12 homers in June, third-most in Red Sox history.