Rivera's walk-off lifts Rays past Red Sox

St. Petersburg, FL - Rene Rivera knocked in the game- winning run as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Boston Red Sox 2-1 in walk-off fashion on Thursday.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

The finale of the three-game set was decided by which bullpen blinked first after Jake Odorizzi and Clay Buchholz kept the bats quiet most of the night.

Relievers from both sides kept it 1-1 until the home ninth, which began with Allan Dykstra greeting Anthony Varvaro (0-1) with a single. Tim Beckham came in as a pinch-runner and moved to second on Kevin Kiermaier's base hit, and Rivera sent a line drive down the third-base line to give Tampa Bay the rubber match.

Brad Boxberger (2-1) tossed a perfect ninth to earn the win.

Pablo Sandoval doubled and scored Boston's only run on a Daniel Nava sacrifice fly in the second inning. Evan Longoria doubled and scored on a Logan Forsythe single in the bottom half.

Those were the only two hits the Rays had against Buchholz, who walked three and struck out 10 over six innings of one-run ball.

The Red Sox put two on in the fifth, but Kiermaier made a diving catch in short right-center to rob Mookie Betts of a potential run-scoring hit.

Odorizzi was pulled with two on and two outs in the seventh, and Brandon Gomes buckled Hanley Ramirez at the knees on a payoff pitch to keep it 1-1.