There was no righting of the ship for the Red Sox on Thursday.
Boston fell 8-1 in its rubber match with the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. The Red Sox, losers of six of seven, now are 1 1/2 games behind the Tampa Bay Rays for first place in the American League East.
MartÃn Pérez turned in another poor outing, failing to make it out of the second inning. The offense once again failed to muster anything, with Tigers starter Tarik Skubal stifling Boston's bats over five shutout innings.
The Red Sox dropped to 64-46 with the loss, while the Tigers improved to 53-58 with the win.
Here's how it all went down:
GAME IN WORD
Undesired.
We Googled "antonyms for 'needed'," and that's what came up. So, we're sticking with it. This game was the opposite of what the Red Sox needed.
ON THE BUMP
-- Pérez offered Boston neither the length nor the effectiveness that it needed.
The lefty allowed a leadoff homer to Robbie Grossman in the first inning, putting his team in a 1-0 hole. He allowed a two-out double to Eric Haase but escaped the inning without allowing any further damage.
But the second inning presented more trouble for Pérez. Victor Reyes shot a ball into the left-center gap for a leadoff triple and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Zack Short. Pérez then allowed consecutive singles and hit a batter to load the bases, prompting Alex Cora to summon Phillips Valdéz.
Pérez ultimately allowed three earned runs on five hits and no walks while striking out two over 1 1/3 innings. His ERA now sits at 4.77.
-- Valdéz allowed an inherited runner to score on a weak ground ball in front of the mound but otherwise was great. The right-hander allowed zero hits and issued zero walks while striking out two over 2 2/3 innings, throwing 38 pitches.
-- Hansel Robles got knocked around in the fifth inning.
The hard-throwing righty allowed three earned runs, all of which scored on a Jeimer Candelario double and another triple from Reyes. Both hits came with two outs.
Robles, who had pitched well after being acquired last week in a trade with the Minnesota Twins, gave up three hits and walked a batter while striking out two.
-- Fellow newcomer Austin Davis took over in the sixth and allowed back-to-back singles, the first of which saw Akil Baddoo take second on an error and the second of which brought him home.
He came back out for the seventh and gave up a run on three hits before being lifted from the game.
-- Yacksel RÃos got the final out of the seventh and pitched a perfect eighth.
IN THE BATTER'S BOX
Detroit out-hit Boston, 13-9.
-- Boston's lone run came in the eighth, when Erasmo RamÃrez loaded the bases on singles by Franchy Cordero and Hunter Renfroe and a walk from Kevin Plawecki. Alex Verdugo eventually scored Cordero on a sacrifice fly.
-- Verdugo, Plawecki and Rafael Devers all had multi-hit games, with Verdugo's double accounting for the Red Sox's only extra-base hit.
-- Renfroe, Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Kiké Hernández all went hitless.
-- Jarren Duran struck out in his lone at-bat, which came in the ninth inning.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Decent Throwback Thursday post.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox will head to Canada where they'll begin a four-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. First pitch from Rogers Centre is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. ET.
