In a game seemingly designed to set the sport back decades, the Red Sox rallied for four run in the bottom of the eighth and somehow secured a 12-9 win over the Detroit Tigers in a game that featured 30 hits, six errors and countless lead changes.
Trailing by a run, the Sox took advantage of two errors from the Tigers in the eighth and with two out, four runners reached. Alex Verdugo's two-run single was the key hit.
The Sox used six pitchers after Nathan Eovaldi, so sharp in the first two innings, couldn't get out of the fifth. Six Red Sox hitters had multi-hit games, led by, of all people, Franchy Cordero, who took over for Kike Hernandez (hamstring) in the first inning and snapped an 0-for-25 skid with three hits.
WHO: Red Sox (18-13) vs. Detroit Tigers (9-22)
WHEN: 1:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: 1-1
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (4-2, 3.63) vs. RHP Spencer Turnbull (3-1, 4.06)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
TIGERS
Grossman DH
Schoop 1B
Candelario 3B
Ramos C
Goodrum SS
Castro 2B
Jones CF
Reyes RF
Baddoo LF
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Verdugo LF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Renfroe RF
Gonzalez 2B
Plawecki C
Dalbec 1B
B8: This is the craziest inning of the craziest game of the season: Sox score four runs to take the lead, as the Tigers are busy wrapping this up for the Sox and putting a bow on it -- two errors, a wild pitch and the gifts keep coming.
T8: Red Sox just cannot stand prosperity today. Every time they grab a lead, the Tigers come back. Matt Andriese with a bad inning here, with a leadoff walk and three straight two-out hits.
T7: Devers giveth and Devers giveth away. After singling home two runs in the top of the inning, Devers overthrows second base on what should have been an inning-ending double play and the Tigers capitalize one batter later for the tying run.
B6: Devers wastes little time before driving a single up the middle to score two and give the Red Sox their first lead since the fourth.
B6: Flick of the wrist by Martinez scores Cordero from third, and the Sox have two on, no out and one in.
T5: Ugly, ugly. Sox have coughed up another lead, and to make matters worse, Taylor is way too late breaking for first, enabling an infield hit and a run.
T5: Poor outing from Eovaldi, who gave no hint that this happen through three innings, during which he allowed just one hit. But starting in the fourth, the Tigers took a far more aggressive approach with him, often swinging at the first pitch, and now, his day is done with one out in the fifth. Josh Taylor on.
B4: Great bat control for Bogaerts, who flicks his bat at a pitch and loops it into center, scoring Martinez from second.
T4: Eovaldi gets out of a marathon inning (30 pitches) when Robbie Grossman hits into a bases-loaded comebacker, but you can see that it took a lot out of him.
T4: Sloppy play by Devers, who attempted to make a play before he had secured a grounder. Tigers have first-and-second.
T4: Tigers being aggressive with Eovaldi and it's paying off -- swinging early in the count, they have four hits this inning, and have tied the game with a two-run single from Harold Castro.
B3: Nice afternoon at the plate for Plawecki, getting a rare start. He slaps a broken-bat single to left, scoring Bogaerts.
B3: A couple of mistakes by the Tigers -- error by Nico Goodrum and a hit-by-pitch - prove costly for Detroit as Rafael Devers singles up the middle, scoring J.D. Martinez.
B2: Cordero snaps an 0-for-25 hitless streak with a double into the right field corner, scoring Kevin Plawecki.
B2: Bobby Dalbec looks completely lost against righthanders. Now just 4-for-52.
B2: Red Sox announce that it's right hamstring tightness for Hernandez.
T2: Nathan Eovaldi attacking the Tigers lineup with a blizzard of high-octane fastballs, up to 98 mph on his four-seamer. He's faced six and retired them all, with three strikeouts.
B1: Run-scoring single to left by J.D. Martinez scores Cordero. Martinez now has 30 RBI, tops in the big leagues.
B1: Kike Hernandez leaves the game with an injury. Had doubled off The Wall and slid into second. Looked to be stretching at second before advancing to third and asking out. Could be a groin or muscle pull. Franchy Cordero replaces him.
PRE-GAME STATS: The Red Sox have lost three of their last four games, but they are still tied with the Giants and Cardinals for the second-best record in the majors (18-13, .581)...The Sox’ +23 run differential ranks fourth in the AL....Today 's game ends a stretch in which the Sox play 21 of 23 games are against teams outside of their division..Just 18 of their first 57 games are against AL East teams, with none against the Yankees...Today marks the 1000th game for Xander Bogaerts in a Red Sox uniform, as he becomes the 30th player in franchise history to reach that milestone and only the 10th to do before his 29th birthday.... The Red Sox lead the majors in batting average (.263), slugging percentage (.443), OPS (.771), doubles (68), and extra-base hits (109)...They also lead the American League in runs (154)....J. D. Martinez leads the majors in RBI (29) and total bases (78) and is tied for the lead in homers (10)... He also ranks among the top 5 in MLB in average (5th, .349), OBP (4th, .437), slugging (3rd, .716), OPS (3rd, 1.152), extra-base hits (2nd, 20), and runs scored (T-3rd, 25)....Martinez, who homered Wednesday night, has hit 96 HR with the Red Sox. He would be the 32nd player to hit 100 homers with the club..... In his last 10 starts Nathan Eovaldi is 7-2 with a 2.59 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, .239 opponent average and a 6.33 strikeout to walk ratio....Eovaldi has not allowed a home run in his last 47.2 IP, the longest active homerless streak in the majors.. The last homer he allowed was 197 batters ago -- Tampa Bay's Austin Meadows on Sept. 12, 2020... Eovaldi is the only qualified pitcher to not allow a home run in 2021.... Red Sox pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters in each of their last 9 games, the longest streak in franchise history...The previous high was eight games in September of 2017...It's the second-longest streak by any team this season; San Diego had a 10-game streak....After striking out 10 or more in just eight of their first 20 games, Red Sox pitchers have struck out 10 or more batters in 10 of their last 11 games...Matt Barnes struck out all three batters faced Wednesday nigh...Barnes has struck out 49.2% of batters faced (29 of 59) and has not allowed a run in his last 6 outings. He's 7-for-7 in save opportunities...In those 7 games, he has allowed 0 runs and held opponents to a .043 AVG (1-for-23) with 12 SO and one walk...Jonathan Schoop is 1-for-9 lifetime against Eovaldi...Kevin Plawecki is the only member of the Boston starting lineup with a hit off Spencer Turnbull.
NOTES:
- Outfielder Alex Verdugo, who missed Wednesday night with stiff back, is back in the lineup in left field. Infielder Christian Arroyo, who left the game in the eighth inning after having been struck in the left hand an inning early, was given the day off and Alex Cora indicated the Sox would try to stay away from him for a bit. "Obviously, we've got to be careful with Christian,'' said Cora. "We'll see how he feels throughout the day and see what he can or cannot do and we'll go from there. It's pretty similar to last week. You saw that he missed a few games (after being hit on the hand on the other occasion); we didn't use him. It looked bad from the get-go. When he left (Wednesday) he felt like it's pretty similar to last week, so hopefully, he doesn't miss too much.''