Ramon Ramirez walks Ramon Santiago on four straight pitches with the bags filled with Tigers.
Considering that they led by five runs in the sixth and wasted so many scoring chances, this has to go down as one of the worst losses of the season for the Sox.
11:34 p.m.: Scott Schoeneweis fails to do the job. He gives up a single to rookie Brennan Boesch, who is 4-for-6, to put runners on the corners with one out. Ramon Ramirez is on for the Sox.
11:28 p.m.: With lefty Brennan Boesch due up and a runner at first, Terry Francona is calling on Scott Schoeneweis, the fifth Red Sox pitcher of the night.
Mid 12th, 6-6: Manny Delcarmen will face the 3-4-5 hitters for the Tigers after the Sox go 1-2-3 in the top of the 12th.
There is only one other game still being played in the majors, Oakland at LA.
End 11th, 6-6: Back and forth we go, both teams seemingly intent on stranding runners left and right. The Tigers get the leadoff man on against Manny Delcarmen, move him to second on a bunt and then see Austin Jackson ground out and Johnny Damon look at strike three.
Tigers closer Jose Valverde is on in relief to start the 12th.
Mid 11th, 6-6: David Ortiz has his first three-hit game of the season, but the third was a bit of a gift. On a flare to left, Johnny Damon and shortstop Adam Everett got some signals crossed and Damon looked bad as the ball fell in. That gave the Sox runners at first and second with no outs. Again they failed to get the big hit, losing their chance to take the lead on a strikeout and a double play.
End 10th, 6-6: Taking a page from the Red Sox' book, the Tigers are starting to waste some scoring opportunities. Rookie Brennan Boesch doubles off Jonathan Papelbon with one out in the 10th, but is left right there. On to the 11th.
Papelbon has thrown 26 pitches in 2 1/3 innings. Perhaps Manny Delcarmen will be next.
Mid 10th, 6-6: A ton of action is packed into about two minutes in the top of the 10th, but the Sox again leave one in scoring position.
Mike Lowell led off with a pinch single, and was replaced on first base by Jonathan Van Every. Marco Scutaro bunted Van Every to second, and the runner moved to third on Dustin Pedroia's groundout.
Victor Martinez then lined a hot shot that first baseman Miguel Cabrera grabbed, sending this one to the bottom of the 10th tied.
The Sox have left 12, five in scoring position with two outs.
End 9th, 6-6: Johnny Damon is now 0-for-14 against Jonathan Papelbon. His pop to third is part of a 1-2-3 inning for Papelbon in the ninth.
The Sox are headed to extra innings for the seventh time this year. They are just 1-5 in such contests.
Mid 9th, 6-6: Jeremy Hermida pinch hits for Bill Hall and goes down swinging, sending this one to the bottom of the ninth.
It seems as if every Red Sox loss this season is particularly painful for one reason or another. This would certainly fall into that category if they end up on the wrong end of the score.
Jonathan Papelbon will be out there to try to send this one to extra innings.
10:21 p.m.: With two outs and nobody on in the Red Sox' half of the ninth, Tigers manager Jim Leyland has called on flamethrower Joel Zumaya to face Bill Hall.
End 8th, 6-6: The Tigers had runners at second and third with nobody out and just needed something in the air to get the winning run in. They never got it. After blowing the lead, Hideki Okajima got a strikeout and a lineout, and Jonathan Papelbon came on to get Adam Everett to pop out on the first pitch.
10:12 p.m.: Hideki Okajima coughed up the lead on a home run, a walk, a single and a double. Jonathan Papelbon is coming on in a tie game with runners on second and third and two outs.
Mid 8th, Red Sox 6-4: The Red Sox have now drawn 11 walks after Victor Martinez gets a free pass in the eighth. That is a season high and is just four shy of the all-time club record, accomplished five times previously, the last in 1992.
They have only lost one of those five times, winning the others by a comfortable margin. If Boston winds up on the wrong end of this one, it can look to 11 left on base.
Hideki Okajima is on in relief of Jon Lester.
End 7th, Red Sox 6-4: Jon Lester has 10 strikeouts after fanning the side in the seventh, the last of which represented the tying run. It came on his 118th pitch of the night.
By the way, the Red Sox' 10 walks matches a season high for the club. It would be painful to see one slip away when something like that happens.
Mid 7th, Red Sox 6-4: This is a dangerous time of the game for the Red Sox. It figures to be Jon Lester's final inning, and Daniel Bard is probably not available after throwing 29 pitches Friday night. Hideki Okajima also pitched, but he should be good to go.
9:22 p.m.: J.D. Drew is on first with one out after drawing a walk, and the Tigers are bringing in their third pitcher of the night.
End 6th, Red Sox 6-4: Just when you think the Tigers won't touch Jon Lester again, they pounce on him in the sixth to make this a game again.
Lester started the frame in solid fashion by recording his sixth strikeout. Red Sox killer Magglio Ordonez followed with Detroit's first hit since the third inning, a single, and Miguel Cabrera had a base hit of his own.
Then, rookie Brennan Boesch ripped a two-run triple to left and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Inge.
Boesch has 19 RBIs in 18 games since being called up from Triple-A Toledo.
That two-run homer by Bill Hall in the fifth looms extremely large now.
A foul tip got Victor Martinez pretty well in the sixth, but he was able to continue.
Mid 6th, Red Sox 6-1: The highlight of the sixth sees Kevin Youkilis draw his fourth walk in as many plate appearances. The Sox have drawn nine free passes overall in this one.
Youkilis is left on first after David Ortiz lined to third.
End 5th, Red Sox 6-1: If you stepped out for a snack, you missed the Tigers bat in the fifth, regardless of how far away the kitchen is. Jon Lester posts two strikeouts and a groundout to cruise through the frame.
Detroit remains with just one hit.
Mid 5th, 6-1 Red Sox: Gunning all the way, Adrian Beltre cranks a double and then advances to third on J.D. Drew's sacrifice fly to deep center.
Bill Hall makes Bonine pay, hammering a home run to put the Red Sox on top 6-1. It's Hall's third dinger of the year, second in two games.
Darnell McDonald goes down on strikes, as the umpire seemed to give Bonine the outside pitch. Scutaro then makes the final out by grounding to third.
End 4th, 4-1 Red Sox: J.D. Drew goes into a slide in foul territory and snags the ball under the outstretched hands of a fan. Nice catch, especially since the ball took a little longer to fall than usual when one goes into a sliding catch.
Lester then nabs his third strikeout of the game, telling Brennan Boesch to rejoin the bench.
He gave up a two-out walk to Brandon Inge much to Lester's displeasure. No harm, no foul though, as Laird sends a hard chopper to Beltre who gets the easy out.
Mid 4th, 4-1 Red Sox: Eddie Bonine came on for Detroit and faced Victor Martinez, who has already struck out twice today.
Bonine, who has a 0.95 ERA in 19 innings on the year, induced a popup before Youk worked a full-count walk. It's the eighth walk given up by Tiger pitching tonight.
Bonine then threw a breaking pitch to the outside that had Ortiz lunging, but he was able to dink it into left-center. Scutaro easily scored, but Pedroia was thrown out at home.
The catcher fielded the the throw out of the baseline to the left and behind home plate, but Pedroia — already leaning to the inside of the baseline — couldn't avoid a lunging Gerald Laird and didn't come close to touching home plate.
Dontrelle Willis' final line looks like this: 3 1/3 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 7 BB, 5 K. His ERA rose from 3.99 to 4.68.
Top 4th, 1 out, 3-1 Red Sox: The D-Train got things started by whiffing Darnell McDonald, but Marco Scutaro singled to put a man on base.
On the 3-0 pitch to Dustin Pedroia, Willis reached 85 pitches. He went on to walk Pedroia on the next pitch and that will end his day as Jim Leyland heads to the mound.
End 3rd, 3-1 Red Sox: Jon Lester couldn't engineer a quick 1-2-3 inning. He got the inning off on the wrong foot by walking Scott Sizemore.
The rookie second baseman then came around on an Adam Everett double into the gap in left field.
Beltre then handled two consecutive chances off the bats of Austin Jackson and Casper Wells to quiet things down.
It took a sliding catch by Marco Scutaro on his knees to retire Magglio Ordonez to end the inning.
Mid 3rd, 3-0 Red Sox: The Red Sox finally broke through against Dontrelle Willis.
After Marco Scutaro struck out to kick off the action, sparkplug Dustin Pedroia worked a walk.
Victor Martinez, mired in a slump, whiffed as well but that's when things got interesting.
After a walk to Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz cranked a single to score one, with Youk at third. Following yet another walk to Adrian Beltre to load the bases, J.D. Drew hit a ground-rule double, driving in two.
Bill Hall ended the action with a fly to right, and now Lester has a three-run lead to work with.
End 2nd, 0-0: The Tigers made Jon Lester work a bit harder in the second. Miguel Cabrera drew a leadoff walk and impressive rookie Brennan Boesch fouled off a host of good pitches before going down swinging.
Lester needed 20 pitches to get through the second. He threw 10 in the first.
Mid 2nd, 0-0: The Sox have had two on in both innings but have failed to capitalize on Dontrelle Willis's wildness. He has walked three already, and Adrian Beltre's single in the second gives Beltre eight hits in 10 at bats against Willis.
Darnell McDonald ended the second by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play.
End 1st, 0-0: No issues for Jon Lester in the first. He has looked so good for three straight starts, but is particularly outstanding out of the gate, pumping in fastballs in the high-90s at times and putting all of his pitches where he wants.
Two groundouts and a strikeout get Lester through one in just 10 pitches.
Mid 1st, 0-0: Before striking out David Ortiz with two on to end the first, Dontrelle Willis had walked seven of the last 12 Red Sox batters he had faced dating back to his last start against Boston in June 2009. He had also hit a batter in that span. But with the whiff of Ortiz he is through the first unharmed.
Marco Scutaro and Kevin Youkilis drew free passes in the first for Boston.
7:04 p.m.: The Red Sox are looking to move three games above .500 for the first time this year. Their effort gets underway in moments.
6:54 p.m.: With first pitch minutes away, here are a few numbers to think about when you watch the Red Sox and Tigers go at it.
- The Sox have won the last five meetings and eight of the last nine.
- Designated hitter David Ortiz now has 34 multi-homer games in his Red Sox career, one behind Jim Rice for second place and just three behind all-time leader Ted Williams.
- Second baseman Dustin Pedroia ranks fifth in the American League with a .382 (21-for-55) average on the road.
- Outfielder Brennan Boesch is the first Tiger since 1920 to collect at least one RBI in 11 of his first 17 games.
- Right fielder Magglio Ordonez is a career .350 hitter (114-for-326) in 88 games against Boston. That ranks him third among all active players.
- Detroit relievers lead the AL with 10 wins and a 2.55 ERA.
5:55 p.m.: Good news on the injury front for the Red Sox. According to reports from The Boston Globe, Josh Beckett got through his side session just fine at Comerica Park and will start Tuesday in Yankee Stadium.
Also, Mike Cameron is on track to join the team in the Bronx, and fellow outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury could begin a rehab stint soon.
5:15 p.m.: David Ortiz will start at designated hitter for the first time in awhile against a lefty, a reward for his two-homer effort Friday night. Here are the lineups for both teams:
Red Sox
Marco Scutaro SS
Dustin Pedroia 2B
Victor Martinez C
Kevin Youkilis 1B
David Ortiz DH
Adrian Beltre 3B
J.D. Drew RF
Bill Hall LF
Darnell McDonald CF
Tigers
Austin Jackson CF
Casper Wells LF
Magglio Ordonez RF
Miguel Cabrera 1B
Brennan Boesch DH
Brandon Inge 3B
Gerald Laird C
Scott Sizemore 2B
Adam Everett SS
8 a.m.:Jon Lester will look to remain on top of his game when he takes on the Detroit Tigers in the second of three straight at Comerica Park.
Lester, who is making his 100th career start, has dominated opponents for three straight outings. He will be hoping run support similar to what Clay Buchholz received Friday in the Red Sox' 7-2 win.
David Ortiz hit two of Boston's four home runs. The Sox scored five in the top of the first inning and never looked back en route to their eighth win in 11 games.
Dontrelle Willis opposes Lester in a matchup of lefties. First pitch is 7:05 p.m.
