The Red Sox were heading to face the Tigers for a 4 game series and had John Lackey on the mound. Lackey has been a pleasant surprise for most Sox fans, pitching quality start after quality start. Lackey would pitch another quality start and leave the mound in line for a win, but Andrew Bailey continued his pitches woes and the Sox would suffer a walk off loss as a result.
Lackey was facing a pretty daunting lineup with Cabrera, Fielder and VMart in it, but he didn't look phased at all. Lackey and Alvarez both kept pitching scoreless innings until the 4th when David Ortiz gave Lackey a small lead when he hit a leadoff HR. Sox 1-0. Lackey got another run of support in the 5th when Iggy hit a triple and then Ellsbury hit an RBI single to get him home. Sox 2-0. The game got tied during the only hiccup Lackey had during the outing when he gave up a 2 run RBI single to Torii Hunter. Sox 2-2. In the 7th the Sox bats got the lead back for Lackey and had him in line for a win. Once again, it was Big Papi who got it done. Ortiz hit an RBI single to score Victorino. Sox 3-2. Lackey was done after 7 innings and his pitching line was 98 pitches, 7 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 1 BB and 5 Ks.
Koji Uehara pitched a scoreless 8th inning and headed into the dugout for high fives. John Farrell showed confidence in Andrew Bailey as the closer and sent him to the mound. Unfortunately, Bailey continued to show that was not the best choice. Bailey didn't record an out before blowing the save and losing the game. Bailey walked VMart and then when he had Peralta on an 0-2 count before he threw him a pitch he could hit. Peralta hit a 2 run HR to have the Tigers walking off with the win. Farrell said after the game that the team will need to make a change in the closer role moving forward. Bailey just hasn't looked right since he came off the DL.
Red Sox 3 Tigers 4 BOXSCORE
WP: Smyly (3-0) LP: Bailey (3-1)
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