Final, Red Sox 6-3: Alfredo Aceves has redeemed himself, shutting the door and getting the save. And he did it after a brief, but notable rain delay in the eighth inning.
With that, the Red Sox have a winning record. The team dug themselves in an early hole with a slew of losses in April, but they have bounced back with a strong May.
Unlike Opening Day, the Red Sox batters punished Justin Verlander in the pitcher’s worst outing of the season. Bard, meanwhile, took steps in the right direction by getting more strikeouts than walks.
End 8th, Red Sox 6-3: With three strikeouts in the eigth, Villarreal took care of the Red Sox lineup.
Now, it’s up to Alfredo Aceves, who sat down for awhile, to close it all out for Boston. He’ll try to avenge his recent misshaps from over the past two days.
But with the possible victory, the Red Sox could finally be primed to crack a winning record.
10:50 p.m.: Play resumed and the rain delay was 38 minutes. Back to baseball.
10:43 p.m.: The tarp is off and the grounds crew is cleaning the infield, so we should be back in business relatively soon.
10:21 p.m.: The rain has become more a drizzle now. It’s supposed to last roughly about 30 minutes, but obviously, the weather is unpredictable.
The Red Sox have been fortunate that rain delays haven’t plagued them much this season.
10:12 p.m.: It’s a rain delay and with that:
This Red Sox rain delay is presented by L.L. Bean.
The rain is coming down very, very heavy down here. Nick Punto tried to finish the at-bat, but the rain drops are huge.
The wind is at six mph and temperature is roughly 71 mph. There’s a chance this game may get called since we’re so late into it. Stay tuned.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 6-3: Kevin Youkilis may be growing older, but he’s still got a cannon arm.
He fired out Jhonny Peralta on a tough grounder. Maybe he’s been getting some tips from Tom Brady, since after all, he’s married to the quarterback’s sister.
Also, Alfredo Aceves is warming up in the bullpen. Keep in mind that he’s struggled in his last two appearances.
End 7th, Red Sox 6-3: Duane Below was subbed in for Justin Verlander to limit David Ortiz.
Instead, the designated hitter continued to flourish against southpaws. Brayan Villarreal picked up the slack for Detroit’s bullpen, racking up two strikeouts.
Joaquin Benoit said that the team’s bullpen needs to match the starting pitcher’s production. That’s key here.
9:47 p.m.: David Ortiz has continued to crush, belting his 11th homer of the season. This one was to opposite field and off a lefty.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 5-3: Miguel Cabrera ripped a ground rule double and Prince Fielder followed up with an RBI single.
That’s what makes them one of the most dangerous tandems in baseball and — after speaking to some Detroit players — they are really impressed with Cabrera’s work ethic and sacrifice.
Meanwhile, Padilla did the job in relief, getting the final out of the inning.
9:40 p.m: Vicente Padilla entering for Andrew Miller.
9:32 p.m.: The most recent update on Jarrod Saltalamacchia is that he was feeling “ill” and was removed as a precation. That’s according to a Red Sox spokesman.
End 6th, Red Sox 5-2: It may be a bad night for the reigning American League MVP and Cy Young winner when Scott Podsednik gets a leadoff double off of you. (No offense to Podsednik, but he has been redefining “journeyman” and just came up from the minors last week.)
Nick Punto — who was batting all of .122 — then got on base on an infield punch the Tigers couldn’t get to.
Verlander came back to strike out Ryan Sweeney and Daniel Nava, but that puts him at 105 pitches on the night.
Andrew Miller has just come into the game to pitch the top of the seventh for the Sox, and Kelly Shoppach arrives as the catcher.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 5-2: Scott Atchison gets it done, and the Tigers and Red Sox head to the sixth.
It will be interesting to see how Justin Verlander responds after that long layoff. He’s likely steaming after allowing the most hits (eight) and runs (five) of all season. He’s also worked into the seventh in every game this year, so he’ll have to battle through this one.
9:11 p.m. Scott Atchison enters the game. He’s been lights-out for the Red Sox in middle relief this season and comes in needing one out to finish off the inning.
Rich Hill got his work in at first, covering the bag to get Brennan Boesch on a groundout. He then walked Alex Avila.
9:04 p.m.: That will be a night for Daniel Bard. He’s out after 94 pitches and 5 1/3 innings.
Manager Bobby Valentine left him in to strike out Delmon Young, one batter after giving up his second earned run of the night on a homer to Prince Fielder.
Fielder says he hasn’t had trouble adjusting to the American League, but his power numbers have been down so far this year. The home run he just sent into the right field stands may start to change that.
That’s just the fourth home run Bard has allowed all year, and he’ll take it with him into the clubhouse. It’s now Rich Hill’s turn on the mound.
End 5th, Red Sox 5-1: Trivia question: How many triples does David Ortiz have in his career? The answer is 16, with no more than two in a season. He has none this year, which may be why he tried to motor into third while scoring Adrian Gonzalez on his double.
Gonzalez gets the tip of the hat in that inning. He had a good jump off of first and really legged it out while the ball bounced around in left center.
P.S. Verlander is at 87 pitches. He hasn’t gone less than six innings in a start all year, but this could be the time, with the Boston offense continuing to threaten.
Mid 5th, Red Sox 4-1: Daniel Bard gets his first blemish of the night, giving a run back in the bottom of the inning after the Sox offense backed him up with three runs in the top of the frame. But he also struck out Miguel Cabrera to get out of the inning.
Bard looked to be rolling last inning but was shaky in the fifth after gaining the lead. Matt Albers started warming up in the bullpen as Bard zipped past 75 pitches on the night.
Still, he’s had a respectable outing. He’s going neck-and-neck with Verlander on the stat line tonight, except he’s got the lead.
Bard has thrown 81 pitches through five innings, while Verlander has thrown 74 through four. Bard: four hits, one run. Verlander: six hits, four runs. Verlander does have five strikeouts, while Bard has three.
It’s got to be a confidence-builder for Bard, who has shown great potential this season but has also had control issues. Bard also walked another batter in the fifth, but he’s looking much better than other games recently, when he was having real trouble with the free passes.
End 4th, Red Sox 4-0: And Daniel Nava continues his magic. The Red Sox break it open with three singles and a Daniel Nava double.
Kevin Youkilis, Mike Aviles and Scott Podsednik all singled, with Jarrod Saltalamacchia biting hard on strikes and Nick Punto lining out to short in between.
Verlander and Nava then dueled their way to a full count, with Verlander throwing 99-mph heat near Nava’s face then getting him to swing on another 99-mph fastball. But Nava got a hold of the next pitch and sent it into the far reaches of left field, clearing the bases for three runs.
Mid 4th, Red Sox 1-0: That’s three great defensive plays by the Red Sox. It started with a close play at first to get Prince Fielder out, and then the outfield relayed in a Delmon Young shot off the wall and held him to first. That set up a double play on Brennan Boesch’s grounder up the middle, and just like that, the Sox have a clean frame.
That also gets Daniel Bard out of the inning on 12 pitches.
End 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: Justin Verlander is throwing gas, but it’s not always between the lines. Daniel Nava grabs a no-out walk on a 95-mph fastball that missed.
But Verlander buckled down to get out of the inning. He took down Ryan Sweeney on strikes then got an Adrian Gonzalez popup.
The last out of the inning came from David Ortiz, who ripped a shot back on the mound. It bounced off Verlander, but the righty chased down the bounce and threw Ortiz out at first. Justin looks like a gamer out there.
Mid 3rd, Red Sox 1-0: Daniel Bard issued his first walk and then hammered Berry with a pitch.
It looked like he was about to unfold again, but he bounced back and induced a ground out and a flyout — a challenging one — to right.
Fortunately, Ryan Sweeney made the haul. If Adrian Gonzalez was up there, that might’ve been a different story.
End 2nd, Red Sox 1-0: Nick Punto is really struggling at the plate, striking out against Verlander.
Certainly Verlander is one of the best pitcher in the game, if not the best, but much attention will go on Punto since he’s replacing Dustin Pedroia.
Don’t be surprised if the Red Sox make a call to Pawtucket for Pedro Ciriaco.
7:43 p.m.: Mike Aviles just grounded into a force out, but it was enough to bring in David Ortiz.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: Earlier in the week, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine expressed confidence in Bard, who was working on tweaks to his delivery.
So far, so good for Bard. He’s dialed up the fastball to 95 mph and handled Young, Boesch and Avila without any trouble.
And through two innings, no walks — very important.
End 1st, 0-0: Justin Verlander started off like you would expect him to, getting a 1-2-3 inning.
He induced three groundouts, even though I must say that Gonzalez nearly legged out the infield single in his at-bat.
Bard has been really looking forward to this matchup. The Red Sox hitters, on the other hand, know it’ll be a challenge.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Look at this — Daniel Bard started off by throwing 96 mph heat at Berry.
Over the past few games, Bard has been criticized for his declining velocity, but that wasn’t the case here. And in the process, he racked up a strikeout. He was getting the K’s in his recent stretch of starts.
He was able to get a 1-2-3 inning and it’s nice start for the 26-year-old.
5:30 p.m.: Here are the lineups.
Red Sox
Daniel Nava, LF
Ryan Sweeney, RF
Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
David Ortiz, DH
Kevin Youkilis, 3B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Mike Aviles, SS
Scott Podsednik, CF
Nick Punto, 2B
Daniel Bard, P
Tigers
Quintin Berry, CF
Andy Dirks, LF
Miguel Cabrera, 3B
Prince Fielder, 1B
Delmon Young, DH
Brennan Boesch, RF
Alex Avila, C
Jhonny Peralta, SS
Ramon Santiago, 2B
Justin Verlander, P
8 a.m. ET: After squandering their last four chances to go above .500, the Red Sox (24-24) will have another shot against the Tigers (23-25). But it’ll be a tough task, considering the Red Sox will go up against 2011 American League MVP and Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander. Through 10 starts, Verlander is 5-2 with a 2.15 ERA and seven strikeouts.
The last time the Red Sox faced Verlander was on Opening Day, when he tossed eight scoreless innings and captured the victory. But Verlander hasn’t won in Boston since an eight-inning scoreless start there in 2009.
This time around, the Tigers will get a look at a new opposing pitcher in Daniel Bard, who is 4-5 with a 4.69 ERA. During his last three starts, Bard has struggled with his control, issuing more walks than strikeouts.
For more details and analysis from Fenway, follow NESN.com’s live blog. Tune into NESN’s pregame show at 6 p.m. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10.
