With the tying run 90 feet away, J.D. Drew stranded Dustin Pedroia at third base losing to the Detroit Tigers (52-34) in a 6-5 ball game.
Down 6-2 in the seventh the Boston Red Sox (53-34) managed to make it a one run ball game going into the ninth on back-to-back solo homeruns from Jeff Bailey (first Major League hit) and Julio Lugo in the seventh off of Nate Robertson and an RBI double by Lugo in the eighth.
Daisuke Matsuzaka (10-6) was rocked giving up three homeruns through 5 innings pitched giving up 10 hits, six runs, one walk, and four strikeouts in the process.
Matsuzaka left balls up high in the zone struggling with his command and Gary Sheffield (21), Marcus Thames (10), and Carlos Guillen (14) all went big fly off of Matsuzaka whose pitches clearly were not typical of what has been seen for the majority of the season.
Todd Jones nabbed his 22nd save of the season in a tight ninth inning. Pedroia lead off the inning hitting a first pitch fastball for a single. Jones then struck out David Ortiz and got Mike Lowell to fly out to right field. Jason Varitek singled to left field where Craig Monroe bobbled the ball allowing Pedroia to move up to third base.
Drew had a chance to tie the game with Pedroia only a base away, but popped out to third baseman Brandon Inge to end the game. Drew looked at a 0-1 fastball down the middle from Jones but did not swing at it which was the best pitch Drew saw in the at-bat.
Nate Robertson (5-6) got the win going 6.1 innings, on four hits, four runs, four walks, two strikeouts, and gave up two homeruns.
Boston goes into the All-Star break in first place in the American League East with a 10 game lead over the New York Yankees and a 10 game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays.
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