Posted By Lynn Worthy, Sun Staff

Scott Kazmir didn’t need to shoot off his mouth to answer Curt Schilling’s comments about young pitchers with control issues, specifically Kazmir, causing some of the bad blood between the Red Sox and Devil Rays. Instead, he answered it on the mound by leaving the Red Sox hitters guessing all night as Tampa Bay took tonight’s meeting, 5-1.

The 22-year-old hurled 5.2 innings, allowing four hits, and issuing one walk, while striking out seven. His fastball was still registering 93 miles per hour in the sixth inning. He was taken out after 101 pitches with two outs and a 2-2 count to Mike Lowell because of muscle cramps in his thumb and wrist on his throwing hand. Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz combined to go 0-for-5 with a walk.

Mike Lowell on Kazmir: “The report is he throws so hard and he was actually mixing up his pitches real well and baring down when he had to. So, he did a good job today.�

“The last couple of games we’ve swung the bat well as a team, but sometimes you run into a guy who’s got his A-game.“

Dustan Mohr on Kazmir: “We put together good at-bats, we just didn’t have anything to show for it. You know, sometimes that happens. You get a guy like Kazmir throwing tonight and it makes it tough on us, especially when they take a 2-1 lead and he’s throwing that way.�

Tim Wakefield again got little in the way of run support from the BoSox. Last Saturday he got 0 runs in a 3-0 loss.

The Red Sox are now off to Toronto where they’ll face the newest arm on the Blue Jays staff, A.J. Burnett.

Let's hear Red Sox Nation sound off on tonight's ball game. I know Red Sox fans aren't shy. What's your take?