The Red Sox pounded out 14 hits, including four homers, and needed every last one of them as an early six-run lead was threatened in the late innings before the Sox sealed an 11-7 victory over the Detroit Tigers.
Five different Sox hitters enjoyed multi-hit night with homers coming from Kike Hernandez, Alex Verdugo, Xander Bogaerts and Hunter Renfroe.
Nick Pivetta survived a rocky second innings (two runs on four hits) to get through five innings, but Austin Brice was charged four runs in relief making it hairy.
WHO: Red Sox (17-12) vs. Detroit Tigers (8-21)
WHEN: 7:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: First meeting
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nick Pivetta (3-0, 2.80) vs. RHP Michael Fulmer (1-1, 3.86)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
TIGERS
Grossman LF
Candelario LF
Cabrera DH
Schoop 1B
Goodrum SS
Ramos C
Castro 2B
Jones CF
Reyes RF
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Verdugo LF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Vazquez C
Gonzalez 3B
Arroyo 2B
Renfroe RF
Dalbec 1B
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
T8: Ugly night from the bullpen. Darwinzon Hernandez, who had been so dominant over the weekend, issued two walks and throws a wild pitch, leaving a bases-loaded mess for Matt Barnes with the tying run at first.
T6: Austin Brice, in for mop-up duty, surrenders a three-run homer to JaCoby Jones four hitters into his appearance.
B5: Hunter Renfroe's big night continues. Already with a single and double, he hits a solo homer into the Monster Seats for his third homer of the season and third Red Sox homer tonight.
T4: After a rocky second inning, Pivetta is locked in, retiring seven in a row, including five strikeouts.
B3: Two walks, a wild pitch and a double means that's it for Daniel Norris. Bryan Garcia is the fourth Tiger pitcher of the night and we're not through the third inning.
B2: Xander Bogaerts, who is almost never beaten on a high fastball, tomahawks a pitch up in the zone with J.D. Martinez on base and the rout is on.
B2: Verdugo swats a four-seamer up and away into the Monster Seats and the Sox are back up 5-2
T2: Tigers bunch together four singles to produce two runs and slice the Red Sox' four-run first inning lead in half. Lot of hard contact against Nick Pivetta early.
B1: Throwing error by Michael Fulmer has had huge consequences. Instead of getting a double play on a comebacker by Alex Verdugo and two outs and no one on, the inning has unraveled on the Tigers. Two runs in, two on and still just one out.
T1: Xander Bogaerts ranges into the hole and backhands a grounder by Jonathan Schoop and makes a strong throw to first to nab Schoop at first.
PRE-GAME STATS: Red Sox are coming off their first series loss (to Texas) since their first series of the season, when they were swept at home by Baltimore. In between, they had gone 4-0-3 in the seven series....The Red Sox own the AL’s third-best record at 17-12, .586, behind the Oakland (18-12, .600) and Kansas City (16-11, .593)...The Giants are the only NL team with a higher winning percentage than the Red Sox (17-11, .607). The Sox’ +20 run differential is fourth in the AL...he Sox have not lost more than 2 consecutive games since their season-opening sweep by Baltimore....: This marks the 11th time in the last 19 years the Red Sox have started 17-12 or better through their first 29 games... In nine of the previous 10, they made the postseason. The Sox have won as many as 18 of their first 30 games on 35 different occasions, most recently in 2013 and 2018....The Red Sox lead MLB with 12 come-from-behind wins; no other team has more than nine... They are 9-9 when their opponent scores first...The Sox have won each of their last 5 games against the Tigers, their longest winning streak vs. DET since they won seven in a row from 2010-11...The Sox have scored six or more runs in each of those five games, out-scoring the Tigers by a 43-22 margin... Boston leads the majors in batting average (.261), doubles (65), and extra-base hits (101)...They also lead the AL in runs (138), slugging (.437), and OPS (.762)....After collecting just one homer in a span of five games recently, the Sox have hit six in their last three games...They rank tied for eighth in the AL with 33 homers....The Red Sox lead the majors with eight outfield assists; they led all of MLB with 18 in 2020....According to FanGraphs, Red Sox outfielders rank tied for fifth in the majors with six defensive runs saved, as well as 4th with a 5.3 ultimate zone rating.....Xander Bogaerts has hit five homers in his last dozen games, with two home runs in his last three. He leads MLB shortstops in batting average (.349), OBP (.384), slugging (.585), OPS (.969), doubles (10), hits (37), and extra-base hits (15)...He's also three games away from appearing in 1,000 career games and would become the 30th player to appear in at least 1,000 games with the Sox. ...Only nine layers have appeared in 1,000 ML games for the Sox before turning 29: Bobby Doerr, Dwight Evans, Harry Hooper, Rico Petrocelli, Jim Rice, Everett Scott, Reggie Smith, Tris Speaker, and Carl Yastrzemski...The Sox have allowed 12 earned runs in their last two games, after they gave up 4 ER in their previous 4 games...Even so, the Sox rank fifth in the AL and 11th in the majors in ERA (3.75), after posting a 5.58 ERA in 2020 (28th in MLB)...Sox pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters in each of their last seven games (and in eight of the last nine), tied for the longest streak by any AL team this season (also NYY)....During that nine-game stretch , the Sox lead the majors in SO/9.0 IP with an average of 11.77...The Red Sox have gotten five or more innings from their starters in 23 games; the only other AL team with more than 20 starts of 5.0+ innings is OAK (24)...Sox starters have gone at least five in each of their last eight games...In his first seven starts for the Sox -- including two last September -- Nick Pivetta is 5-0 with a 2.52 ERA and .189 opponent batting average.....Before Pivetta, the last pitcher to go unbeaten in his first seven or more starts with the Red Sox was Jon Lester in 2006 (5-0 in first 9)....Matt Barnes was named AL Reliever of the Month for April, the first time he was so honored...He is the third Red Sox pitcher to win the award (began in 2017), joining Craig Kimbrel (May 2017) and Brandon Workman (September 2019). Barnes is 6-for-6 in save opportunities. In those six games, he has allowed zero runs and held opponents to a .053 AVG (1-for-19) with 11 SO and 1 BB.
NOTES:
- Tonight's matchup pits Alex Cora against A.J. Hinch, who was the manager of the 2017 Houston Astros, for whom Cora served as bench coach. Both served one-year suspensions for their involvement with the sign-stealing scandal in Houston. "I've been very open about it for the last 12-16 months, whatever it is,'' said Cora of his culpability. "People have the right to think about how they think about me and I understand that part.''
- Cora said he hopes that his hitters will "stay on the fastball and stay with the approach of hitting the ball up the middle or the other way,'' with runners in scoring position. "Whenever we stay with that approach, good things happen. We have to (add on early). Putting teams away, that's something we have to do (better).''
- The start of the minor league season tonight will make it easer to track development of players. "The opposition is getting for you and you're getting ready for the opposition,'' said Cora. "Facing your teammates (in alternate site intrasquad games), it's hard because those guys on the mound don't want to throw up and in to (teammates). It's a great for baseball fans -- for those kids to be able to compete after 19 months, it has to be great.''
- Cora is searching for more success at home, where the team is 8-8. "I don't know if the bats are different,'' he said. "We just have to find a better way. Are we more conscious of The Wall being right there and the approach changes and you want to pull the ball instead of staying up the middle? I don't know. It's something that, as a team, we have to do better. That's the bottom line. We haven't done a good job (at home) since '19, and if we want to get to where we want to get, you have to dominate at home.''
- According to chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, Chris Sale threw off the mound Tuesday morning in Fort Myers for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery. "It was really more to just get the feel of it,'' said Bloom. "It was at the end of his throwing session this morning. It was not extensive, but he got up off the mound and threw a few pitches off the mound. So that's a great milestone for him. It's the first time he's done that since the surgery. It was very light today, but great for Chris and awesome for the organization.''
- The Sox have placed RHP Connor Seabold on the IL for the start of the season at Worcester because of some elbow soreness. "Not very concerned,'' said Bloom. "He had a little soreness in that elbow. We had him checked out and it looks to be very minor. Everything's structurally sound in there. But especially, this being the beginning of a long season, we didn't want to take any chances with this so we've slowed him down and he's in a gradual progression to get back up to speed. I don't have a target date (for his return) at this stage. We're obviously going to do this as responsibly as we can. That was the point of this. He looked so good in spring training that we want to make sure we don't derail him. We're just being as conservative as we can be with him.''