Red Sox 3, Rays 2

BOSTON -- Mike Napoli drove Dustin Pedroia home from first base with a one-out double in the bottom of the ninth inning, giving the Boston Red Sox a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday.

The Patriots' Day win completed a sweep of a rain-shortened three-game series against the anemic Rays.

Pedroia walked with one out in the ninth before Napoli hit a 2-2 pitch from loser Joel Peralta (0-1) over the Green Monster in left field to deliver the run that lifted the Red Sox to their eighth win in 12 games this season. It was their second walk-off win of the series.

The winning hit came after Andrew Bailey failed to hold a 2-1 lead for Ryan Dempster in the top of the inning.

Bailey, closing with the thus-far-ineffective Joel Hanrahan resting a tight right hamstring, gave up the tying run in the ninth. Desmond Jennings singled, stole second and scored on Ben Zobrist's hit in front of a diving Jackie Bradley Jr. in left field.

Zobrist took second on the throw home and was there with no one out, but Bailey struck out both Evan Longoria and Matt Joyce and got Ryan Roberts to pop out.

Dempster turned in his first big pitching performance for his new team, leaving after seven innings of two-hit, 10-strikeout work before Koji Uehara pitched a perfect eighth to set up Bailey.

Dempster, who signed a two-year, $26.5 million free agent deal with Boston during the offseason, got a break on a close call at first base in the sixth but failed to get his first win with the Red Sox.

With all personnel on both teams wearing No. 42 on Jackie Robinson Day, Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit his second homer of the season to break a 1-1 tie against hard-luck loser Jeremy Hellickson, who is 0-2 after yielding three hits and striking out nine in seven innings.

Longoria hit his first homer of the year in the fourth inning and came out on the short end of what appeared to be a bad call by first baseman Angel Hernandez on what would have been a game-tying hit in the sixth.

The Rays (4-8) have scored 35 runs in 12 games, six in the last five. They struck out 32 times and had 13 hits in the series. They almost tied a club record of seven games without a homer until Longoria connected.

The Red Sox scored a run in the first inning when Jacoby Ellsbury tripled to center and scored on Shane Victorino's groundout.

The 1-0 lead held until the fourth when Longoria homered on the first pitch he saw with two out in the inning. But the Red Sox got that run back in the sixth, when Saltalamacchia led off with his solo shot.

With one out in the Tampa sixth, Kelly Johnson walked and stole second as Jennings struck out. Johnson took third on a wild pitch and Zobrist also walked. Longoria, who got close calls on 1-2 and 2-2, then hit a grounder up the middle. Stephen Drew stabbed it with a dive and throw to first. The call was out and Longoria slammed his helmet to the ground. Replays showed he was probably safe. He was not ejected from the game.

For Boston, this marked the first series sweep since last June 19-21 and the first over Tampa Bay since last May 24-26.

Notes: The Red Sox are 68-50 on Patriots' Day. ... Batters are 1-for-17 against Red Sox reliever Koji Uehara this season. ... Hellickson did what he could to prepare for the morning start, saying, "I don't know what else I can do. I think Spring Training and these last few days probably helped a little bit. Luckily I'm still kind of on the Spring Training schedule. But it's going to be early. ... Everybody says it looks like I'm sleeping out there anyway." ... With both entire teams wearing Robinson's No. 42 Monday, they will do it again Tuesday night. The Red Sox will have road uniforms in the opener of a three-game series at Cleveland, while the Rays visit Baltimore (both the Indians and Orioles were off Monday). ... Felix Doubront, rained out of his Friday night start against Tampa Bay before working a simulated game Saturday morning, faces Ubaldo Jimenez Tuesday night. It is the Red Sox's first game against their former manager, Terry Francona. ... Meanwhile, Roberto Hernandez, the pitcher formerly known as Fausto Carmona, will pitch against Baltimore's Jake Arrieta Tuesday. ... Red Sox rookie Jackie Bradley Jr., who figures to go to the minors when DH David Ortiz returns from his rehab, is Boston's only African-American player, saying, "Without him this wouldn't be possible. He's a very special guy. His will and determination is what keeps us playing this game at such a high intensity." Bradley is in an 0-for-20 slump and is down to a .097 batting average.