Andrew Miller, Detroits’ young 22 year old lefty, showed why he is one intrical part of the Detroit Tigers (50-34) future pitching rotation which also includes Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander.
Miller may have walked four, but only allowed three hits, one run, and struckout six in the 9-2 win over the Boston Red Sox (53-32).
Curtis Granderson’s solo homerun in the fifth and Marcus Thames’ grandslam in the same inning helped Miller pick up his fourth win of the season and gave Julian Tavarez his seventh loss of the season.
Tavarez struggled giving up eight runs on 10 hits, walking one, striking out four and gave up two homeruns.
Boston had the lead until the fourt inning until the Tigers caught up to Tavarez. Magglio Ordonez had an RBI single to center, Thames brought home a runner on a sacrifice fly, and Brandon Inge doubled to deep left field scoring Carlos Guillen but backup catcher, Mike Rabelo, was thrown out at home by Wily Mo Pena trying to score.
Only down 3-1, Boston, still had a chance to come back, but two homeruns knocked them out of the contest fast.
Granderson lead off the fifth with a solo homerun making it a 4-1 ball game. Placido Polanco singled, Gary Sheffield was hit by-a-pitch, Sean Casey was intentionally walked to load the bases following a Guillen ground out to second and Thames launched his ninth homerun of the season clearing the bases giving the Tigers an 8-1 lead.
Granderson ended the night 3-5 with one RBI while Thames went 1-3 with five RBI’s.
Miller pitched two more innings of no-hit ball and left the game to relief pitcher Chad Durbin who only allowed one run on Doug Mirabelli’s third homerun of the season in the mop-up assignment.
Coco Crisp drove in the first Red Sox run on an RBI single to center that scored shortstop Julio Lugo in the third inning.
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