St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Gabe Gross smacked a two-run homer to help the Tampa Bay Rays down the Boston Red Sox, 5-4, in the opener of a three-game AL East battle at Tropicana Field.

B.J. Upton hit a solo home run, while Carlos Pena and Jonny Gomes each had an RBI for the Rays, who have won six of seven, hold the best record in the majors and lead Boston by 1 1/2 games for first place in the division.

James Shields (6-5) got the win as he gave up two runs on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.

The teams were meeting for the first time since June 5, when a huge brawl erupted in the bottom of the second inning after Shields hit Coco Crisp with a pitch and the benches cleared. Eight players in total were suspended due to the incident. Crisp is currently serving his five-game suspension and will miss the entire series.

J.D. Drew hit a solo homer and Mike Lowell went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Red Sox, who scored twice in the ninth inning but left the potential tying run at third base. It was their third straight loss.

Justin Masterson (4-2) was tagged with the loss as he gave up four runs on five hits with five walks and five strikeouts in six innings.

Troy Percival took the mound to close out the game in the ninth, but got into trouble. After striking out Manny Ramirez, Lowell roped a double to left- center and Kevin Youkilis followed with an infield single. Brandon Moss then lofted a high fly ball to right field that Gross appeared to have lined up, but the ball hit off a catwalk and dropped into shallow right allowing Lowell to score. Jason Varitek then hit another fly ball to right field, but Gross was able to catch this one and Youkilis scored on the tag-up to make it a 5-4 game.

Percival left the game after the play as he came up lame when he went over to cover third base on the play. He took a few pitches to try and work it out, but was unable to continue. J.P. Howell took the mound and got Julio Lugo to line out to short and picked up his second save of the year.

Upton gave the Rays a quick lead in the first as he drilled the first pitch he saw over the center field wall.

Shields cruised through the first three innings as he retired Boston in order over those frames and stuck out four batters.

However, the Red Sox got on board in the fourth. Dustin Pedroia beat out an infield single and Ramirez later walked. Lowell followed with a single to left that plated Pedroia and tied the game.

The Rays regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Dioner Navarro kept the inning alive with a walk and Gross followed by drilling a 2-1 pitch deep into the right field seats.

Tampa worked another two-out run in the fifth as Willy Aybar walked and Pena chased him home with a double for a 4-1 lead.

Boston made it a two-run game in the sixth on Drew's two-out shot into the right field bleachers.

In the seventh, Boston had runners on first and second with one out, but Grant Balfour come on in relief and got Varitek to foul out and Lugo to ground out to kill the threat.

The Rays tacked onto their lead in the seventh courtesy of a fielder's choice from pinch-hitter Gomes that plated Carl Crawford for a 5-2 lead.