by Steve Carney

The snowball just keeps rolling.

The Rays got back-to-back homers from Carlos Pena and Ben Francisco, and shutdown pitching from their bullpen after five inning from starter Alex Cobb to earn their seventh straight win, a 4-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox to complete a two-game sweep.

Boston got to Cobb for a run early, as he allowed a one-out walk to Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who moved to second on a groundout by Ryan Lavarnway and scored on a Daniel Nava single for a 1-0 lead.

Tampa Bay took the lead in the fifth inning, as Jeff Keppinger singled with one out, and scored on Pena's 19th home run of the season, a two-run blast into the seats in centerfield.

Ben Francisco followed with a solo homer, his fourth, off the advertising above the Green Monster seats in left to push the lead to 3-1.

Cobb gutted through the first five innings to earn his tenth win of the season.

Boston cut the lead back to a single run in the sixth thanks to a sacrifice fly by James Loney that scored Dustin Pedroia.

The Rays extended the lead back to two runs in the seventh, as Keppinger and Pena singled to lead off the frame.  Francisco and Ryan Roberts then both struck out, but Jose Lobaton picked up his teammates with a ground-rule double into the bullpens to score Keppinger for a 4-2 lead.

Tampa Bay got perfect innings of relief from Wade Davis in the seventh, Joel Peralta in the eighth, and a scoreless outing from Fernando Rodney in the ninth, with the latter earning his franchise record-tying 45th save.

The win, the Rays' seventh in a row, keeps them three and a half games behind the Baltimore Orioles, who defeated Toronto earlier Wednesday night.

It's now on to Chicago for the final road series of 2012, as the Rays will take on the Chicago White Sox for four games.  Thursday's series opener will see James Shields take on Jake Peavy.  First pitch is scheduled for 8:10, with pregame coverage on 620 WDAE starting at 7:30.