The Red Sox were coming off a brutal walk off loss where it became clear that their closer Andrew Bailey was in fact no longer their closer. Jon Lester was on the mound for the Sox and he's spent most of the month of June struggling to find that dominance he had in the beginning of the season. Lester would continue to struggle in this outing, but the offense and the bullpen definitely picked him up and put him in line for a win.
Lester started out well and the offense got him a huge lead, but once again he had a bad inning and was unable to get his outing to last past the 6th. The Sox jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the 1st when Shane Victorino hit a solo HR. Lester ended up giving that run back in the bottom of the 2nd when he gave up an RBI single to Pena. Sox 1-1. The Sox regained the lead in the 3rd when Pedey hit a RBI grounder to score Ellsbury. Sox 2-1. In the 4th, the Sox bats really put a hurt on Doug Fister. Salty, Drew and Iggy all hit singles to have the bases loaded with one out. Ellsbury hit an RBI double to score Salty and Drew and then Victorino hit an RBI single to score Iggy and Ells. Sox 6-1.
The game looked like it was well within hand for the Sox and Lester could just roll to a win. Lester would get a win, but it wasn't easy. In the 5th Lester gave up a leadoff HR to Dirks. Sox 6-2. Lester than gave up singles to Pena and Hunter and then a 3 run HR to Miguel Cabrera. The game was now a much tighter 6-5 lead for the Sox. In the 6th the Sox gave Lester a little more breathing room when Iggy hit a triple and then an RBI single from Victorino. Sox 7-5. Lester got 2 outs in the 6th and then Farrell lifted him in favor of Tazawa getting the 3rd out. Lester's line for the night was 102 pitches, 5.2 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 3 BB and 3 Ks. Lester was lucky to get the win last night, but that is not the kind of outing we want to see from him.
Tazawa got the final out in the 6th and then headed back in the 7th. Tazawa got one out, but when he gave up a single to Cabrera the Sox went to Breslow to get Fielder and VMart out. Breslow got the job done and the Sox were on to the 8th. The Sox padded their lead in the 8th when Victorino hit a fielder's choice to score Saltalamacchia. Victorino had himself quite a night at the plate going 4 for 5 with 5 RBIs. Drew then scored the final run of the inning when he scored a wild pitch. Sox 9-5. Breslow came out and pitched another scoreless inning in the 8th. The Sox added one more run on in the top of the 9th when Iglesias hit an RBI single to score Drew. Sox 10-5. In the bottom of the 9th Andrew Miller took the mound to close out the game. Miller gave up an RBI grounder to Fielder, but that would be the only damage.
Red Sox 10 Tigers 6 BOXSCORE
WP: Lester (7-4) LP: Fister (6-5)
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