Jackie Bradley Jr. enjoyed the game of his life, Henry Owens pitched well enough to pick up his first big league win and the Boston Red Sox downed the Detroit Tigers 7-2 on Sunday in the rubber match of their three-game series at Comerica Park.
GAME IN A WORD
JBJ.
Bradley carried into the game a miserable .121 batting average, collecting just seven hits in his first 24 major league games this season. He’d played stellar defense in center field, but — as has been the case throughout his Red Sox career — the offensive production simply hadn’t been there.
That was not the case Sunday. Bradley did make an excellent catch, but he also got it done with his bat, going 2-for-3 with a walk, a triple, a home run and a career-high five runs batted in. Those RBIs more than doubled his season total, which now sits at nine.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
With the Red Sox leading 3-2 in the top of the eighth inning, Bradley stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and smacked a full-count fastball from Tigers reliever Ian Krol into right field. The result was a bases-clearing triple that broke the game wide open.
ON THE BUMP
— Owens, making the second start of his major league career, allowed a two-out double in the first inning, then struggled with his command in the second and third. The left-hander walked two batters in the second and another in the third, with the latter leading to Detroit’s first run of the game.
Rajai Davis led off the third inning with a walk, then scampered to third when an Owens offering flew over the glove of catcher Blake Swihart and rolled to the backstop. After consecutive popups, Victor Martinez singled to center to cut Boston’s lead to 2-1.
Owens allowed just the one run in the third, but he needed 63 pitches to get through the first three frames.
The 23-year-old responded with a 1-2-3 fourth, however, which Jackie Bradley Jr. capped off with an over-the-shoulder basket catch at the warning track in center.
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Owens walked another in a scoreless fifth, and after allowing a leadoff double to Ian Kinsler in the sixth, his afternoon was over. He allowed just three hits in the game, but his four free passes and elevated pitch count resulted in a shorter outing than the Red Sox would have preferred.
— Justin Masterson took over with nobody out in the sixth. He walked one but retired the other three batters he faced to strand runners on the corners.
That closed the book on Owens, who allowed one run on three hits in his five-plus innings of work. He walked four and struck out two.
Masterson’s luck ran out in the seventh, as Marte blasted a leadoff homer to cut Boston’s lead to one and chased the right-hander from the game.
— Robbie Ross Jr. took over for Masterson and retired the side in order.
— Junichi Tazawa — the pitcher of record in Saturday’s loss — worked a perfect eighth.
— Jean Machi walked the leadoff man in the ninth but recovered to retire the next three batters, striking out two.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The second inning proved disastrous for Tigers starter Justin Verlander, as the Red Sox plated two runs without hitting a ball out of the infield.
Travis Shaw worked a one-out walk, Alejandro De Aza grounded into a fielder’s choice, and Blake Swihart and Josh Rutledge followed with consecutive infield singles to load the bases. Verlander then walked Boston’s No. 9 hitter, Bradley, to force in the game’s first run, and Brock Holt reached on a weak grounder to second to make it 2-0 Red Sox.
— The Red Sox threatened again in the fifth, with Xander Bogaerts roping a two-out double to snap a streak of seven in a row retired by Verlander. The Tigers chose to intentionally walk David Ortiz after Bogaerts reached, and Verlander struck out Travis Shaw swinging to end the inning.
— Bradley stretched the Red Sox’s lead to 3-1 with a leadoff home run off Verlander in the sixth. It was just his second homer this season and his first since June 30.
— The Sox put the game away in the eighth, batting around and plating four insurance runs. Ortiz and Shaw began the frame with consecutive singles and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by De Aza. After Swihart struck out, Rutledge reached via intentional walk. Bradley cleared the bases with a triple, then came in to score the game’s final run on a single by Holt.
TWEET OF THE GAME
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UP NEXT
After a day off Monday, the Red Sox will begin a two-game interleague series against the Marlins on Tuesday in Miami.
Thumbnail photo via Rick Osentoski/USA TODAY Sports Images
