There was a bench-clearing brawl. There were two towering home runs from a guy who didn't even start. There was a brilliant debut from a promising Boston rookie. Ultimately, there was a 7-5 win for the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
Junichi Tazawa was stellar in his first career start, allowing just one earned run in five innings of work, and his counterpart, Tigers rookie Rick Porcello, was ejected in the second inning. Tensions boiled over when Porcello plunked Kevin Youkilis in the back with his first pitch of the bottom of the second; both players were ejected after a mound-charging fiasco. Later that same inning, Terry Francona was tossed as well.
Jason Bay hit a three-run blast to help the Red Sox out of an early hole, and Mike Lowell carried them to victory from there. After pinch running for the ejected Youkilis, Lowell went deep twice on the night, and the Red Sox never looked back. Not even a Curtis Granderson two-run homer in the ninth could bring the Tigers all the way back.
With the win, the Red Sox kept pace with the Yankees, who also won, in the AL East. They remain 5 1/2 games back. With the Rangers' loss to Cleveland, the Sox widened their lead in the wild card race to 1 1/2 games.
Final: Red Sox 7, Tigers 5.
The
Tigers make things very interesting in the ninth — first Alex Avila
leads off with a double off the Monster, and then Curtis Granderson
goes deep to cut the lead in half — but a win's a win. Eventually,
Papelbon bears down and finishes things. With three strikeouts in the
ninth, the Sox' righty earns his 29th save of the season.
End 8th, 7-3 Sox: Leyland turns to Bobby Seay to
pitch the eighth. Seay gives up a one-out single to right by Jason Bay,
Bay's second hit of the ballgame, but Placido Polanco bails him out by
turning a 4-6-3 double play and ending the eighth.
The Sox are three outs away from polishing off a victory here at Fenway — and it's time to cue up those Dropkick Murphys. In a non-save situation, Jonathan Papelbon will take the mound to pitch the ninth and close this thing out.
Middle 8th, 7-3 Sox: Sox pitchers have now retired eight straight Tigers, including all six since the rain delay. This time it's Daniel Bard coming
in to shut down the Detroit offense — he strikes out the first two
guys he faces and gets the third to line one right at Dustin Pedroia.
On to the bottom of the eighth.
End 7th, 7-3 Sox: It doesn't
take long for Ryan Perry's inexperience to show through. With one out
and runners at the corners, Perry makes a bad mental mistake — balking
from the stretch to score Jacoby Ellsbury. The Red Sox tack on a cheap
insurance run against the Tigers rookie.
Middle 7th, 6-3 Sox: After a
heck of a wait, Takashi Saito finally takes the mound to pitch the top
of the seventh inning for Boston. The time off didn't hurt him one bit
— the Sox righty comes in and quickly makes it a 1-2-3 inning against
the top of the Tigers' order.
Ryan Perry, the Tigers' 22-year-old rookie, will pitch the bottom of the seventh.
10:44 p.m.: After a rain delay
of over an hour, it appears that the tarp's coming off the field and
we're going to get this one in after all. Stay tuned — there's
baseball to be played yet.
9:30 p.m.: As expected, the
time has come to roll out the tarp. The rains have come — hard — and
there's reasonable doubt about whether we'll be able to finish this
one. If the rains don't go away, this will be a shortened 6-3 win for
the Sox — that's certainly a possibility. We'll keep you posted.
End 6th, 6-3 Sox: This is why
they call it "long relief." Chris Lambert stays in for yet another
inning for the Tigers, making it a full five since he took the mound in
relief of the ejected Porcello. Lambert throws a 1-2-3 sixth against
Bay, Drew and Varitek — lineout, groundout, strikeout is all she wrote
for the bottom of the sixth.
On to the seventh — Takashi Saito will take the mound for Boston.
Middle 6th, 6-3 Sox: The rains
are threatening here at Fenway Park, but that doesn't stop Fernando
Cabrera from having a solid first inning of his time in Boston. Alex
Avila threatens with a one-out ground-rule double to right, but Cabrera
gets out of the jam and preserves the three-run Sox lead. Brandon Inge strikes out looking and Ramon Santiago flies out to right — inning over.
End 5th, 6-3 Sox: For the
second time tonight, Mike Lowell has left the building. Not bad for a
guy who entered as a pinch-runner in the second inning. With two outs
and Pedroia on first, Lowell blasts the 1-2 pitch from Lambert over the
wall in left field, his second home run of the game and 13th of the
season. The Sox are starting to pull away with this one.
Fernando Cabrera will make his Red Sox debut in relief of Tazawa, who leaves after five solid innings.
Middle 5th, 4-3 Sox: Make it
eight straight Tigers retired now by Junichi Tazawa — and five of the
eight by way of the K. Tazawa needs just five pitches to retire
Detroit's 3-4-5 hitters — Thomas strikes out on three pitches, and
Rayburn and Guillen both hack at the first pitch and pop out. Tazawa's
pitch count now sits at 94, meaning he's probably fine to go another
inning or two.
End 4th, 4-3 Sox: Chris Lambert
is doing a fine job in relief of the ejected Porcello — another goose
egg here, and the Tigers are hanging in there through four innings.
Varitek singles to right with two outs and nobody on, but Lambert
strikes out Nick Green and gets out of it. Through three innings,
Lambert has now thrown 53 pitches, 29 of them strikes.
Middle 4th, 4-3 Sox: Tazawa is on a roll now — since the Ordonez triple, you're looking at five straight Tigers retired. Here he strikes out both Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco,
giving him five K's in four innings. If not for a failed double-play
attempt back in the first, this kid would have a shutout going.
End 3rd, 4-3 Sox: Looks like
the Sox chose the right pinch-runner for Mr. Youkilis. Mike Lowell
makes the most of his first at-bat of the night, going deep to left
field and over the Monster with the 3-1 pitch from Lambert. For the
first time tonight, the Sox are on top.
Middle 3rd, 3-3: After waiting
for an eternity and a half, Tazawa finally gets back out to the mound
to face the 5-6-7 of the Tigers' order in the top of the third inning.
The first two batters hit him hard — Carlos Guillen goes to the
warning track in center before Ellsbury tracks it down, and Magglio Ordonez
hits one past Drew in right for a stand-up triple — but Tazawa bears
down and gets out of it. With back-to-back looking strikeouts, Tazawa
ends the threat.
Tazawa now has three strikeouts, but his pitch count is now at 72 through three innings of his first career start.
End 2nd, 3-3: First comes a brawl; then comes a blast. After Mike Lowell pinch-runs for Youkilis and David Ortiz singles with nobody out, Jason Bay
steps to the plate and comes out hacking. He absolutely crushes the
first pitch he sees, sending it down the left-field line and over the
Monster for a three-run homer, his second of this series and 23rd of
the season. We're all tied up at Fenway.
8:14 p.m.: From the "this inning needs a few more fireworks…" department: Alex Avila guns down J.D. Drew attempting
to steal second base, and Francona must have said something really
nasty about the call, because it takes second-base umpire Scott Barry approximately 0.487 seconds to toss the Sox' manager out.
A heated exchange between the two inevitably follows, but obviously to no avail. What'd Tito expect, un-ejection? After the events of the first two innings, all the men in blue are bound to have short fuses. Human nature, that is…
8:06 p.m.: You sort of knew this was going to happen eventually, didn't you?
Given the way this series started, it was only a matter of time before tensions spilled over and a bench-clearing brawl ensued. Porcello had gone inside against Victor Martinez in the first — two outs, bases empty, perfect moment to plunk a guy and send a message. But that missed, and Victor eventually struck out, so the Tigers come out throwing at another guy in the second.
That ended up being Kevin Youkilis, who charged the mound immediately when Porcello nailed him in the upper back. Youkilis runs at Porcello hard, flings the helmet in his direction, and barrels into him at full speed — Porcello, meanwhile, tries to skitter away from him to no avail. Benches and bullpens clear, and Porcello is fished out of the pile — eventually, the umpires convene and hand out punishments. Home-plate umpire Brian Onora ejects Youkilis — that's the easy part — and after a long discussion with both managers, Porcello is eventually thrown out of the game as well.
Order has been restored. Chris Lambert will enter in relief of Porcello.
Middle 2nd, 3-0 Tigers: Things
get a little easier for Junichi Tazawa the second time around — Clete
Thomas reaches base for the second time, drawing a two-out walk, but Ryan Raburn strikes out and the inning is over. Smooth sailing for Tazawa in the second.
7:38 p.m.: Fenway takes a moment to pay respects to Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 88, who died today on Cape Cod after a series of strokes. A well-deserved tribute to a revolutionary philanthropist who founded the Special Olympics.
End 1st, 3-0 Tigers: The Red Sox get the leadoff man on in the first when Jacoby Ellsbury singles to left-center field off of Porcello, but it's all for naught. Pedroia grounds into a double play, and Victor Martinez goes down swinging to close the bottom of the first.
Middle 1st, 3-0 Tigers: The Tazawa Era is underway, and the results aren't encouraging. A single from Placido Polanco sparks a one-out rally, and the Tigers end up batting around in inning number one.
After Polanco's single, Clete Thomas singles and Tazawa then hits Miguel Cabrera, loading the bases for Carlos Guillen. An easy grounder from Guillen to Nick Green at short appears to be a double-play ball to end the inning, but that plan goes haywire — Green's throw to Dustin Pedroia at second flies wide, and instead of a DP, it's run-scoring fielder's choice. Another fielder's choice, a walk and another single keep the pressure on for Detroit — we're just getting started, and Junichi Tazawa's already in a three-run hole.
6:40 p.m.: Lefty Clete Thomas will get a start for the Tigers tonight, playing left field and batting third. For Marcus Thames, it'll be a Tuesday night off. At the bottom of the order for Tigers manager Jim Leyland, we'll see a little bit of shuffling: Ramon Santiago will play shortstop tonight, and Alex Avila gets the start behind the plate to catch Rick Porcello.
Speaking of shuffling, the Red Sox do plenty of it. Jason Varitek is back in the starting nine, catching the rookie Tazawa, and that means a move to first base for Victor Martinez. Kevin Youkilis shifts across the diamond to third, Casey Kotchman takes a seat, and Mike Lowell gets another night off. The Terry Francona infield carousel continues.
2:00 p.m.: On Monday night, the Red Sox finally got a win. Now they'll look to keep the momentum going.
The
Red Sox had an absolute nightmare of a road trip last week, losing six
consecutive games against division rivals as they swept through — and
were swept out of — Tampa Bay and New York. In their first game back
home, they got back on track.
One night after shelling Cy Young candidate Edwin Jackson in a 6-5 win over the AL Central-leading Tigers, the Red Sox will look for another win. If they're going to stay ahead of the Rangers in the AL wild card race, they'll need it. It's a battle of the rookies in tonight's pitching matchup — Junichi Tazawa gets the ball for the Sox, and Tigers rookie Rick Porcello takes the mound in search of his 11th win.
For the Tigers, this series is a big one — the White Sox are nipping at their heels in the race for the AL Central crown, and every win counts.
