The Sox came into this game hoping for a win to split the 4 game series with the Tigers. It would be Felix Doubront vs. Justin Verlander. Doubront was coming off his best start of the season and Verlander has been struggling more this season than usual. In this game both starters would struggle some and last just the league minimum 5 innings, so it would be a battle of the bullpens. The game ended up turning on an interesting call from the umps in the 8th inning and the Sox once again fell to the Tigers.
Doubront had another outing where he struggled out of the gate and wasn't able to go deep in the game. Doubront threw 30 pitches in the first and gave up 2 runs. Dubi gave up an RBI double to Cabrera and a sac grounder to Fielder to have the Sox down 0-2 early. The Sox bats got those runs right back from Doubront in the 2nd when Lavarnway hit an RBI single and Ellsbury hit a sac fly. Sox 2-2. In the bottom of the 2nd the Tigers took the lead back when Holaday was able to score on a Lavarnway passed ball. Sox 2-3. To continue the seesaw action, the Sox tied the game again in the 3rd when Napoli hit an RBI sac grounder to score Pedey. Sox 3-3.
In the 4th the Sox took the lead again when Victorino hit an RBI groundout to score Lavarnway. Sox 4-3. Basically both Verlander and Doubront weren't having their best days. After 5 innings both of the starters were out of the game. Doubront's pitching line for the night was 104 pitches, 5 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB and 2 Ks. Tazawa pitched a scoreless 6th inning and then Andrew Bailey took the mound in the 7th. This was Bailey's first outing since he was pulled from the closer role and he would still have problems getting people out. Bailey gave up singles to both Jackson and Cabrera in his outing. Farrell would go get Bailey and replace him with Miller. Miller gave up a single to load the bases and it looked like he might get out of the jam when he struck VMart out for the 2nd out. However Miller ended up hitting Peralta with a pitch and the Tigers would tie the game. Sox 4-4. In the 8th is where the controversial call happened. Garcia hit a pop fly out to Nava in RF. It looked like Nava caught then ball, but then dropped it on the transfer to make the throw in to 2nd base. The ump said that Nava didn't catch the ball and Garcia was safe at 2nd. Farrell argued the call and was thrown from the game for the first time as a Sox manager. The Tigers got Garcia to 3rd on what would have been a sac bunt, but there was a throwing error from Miller and everyone was safe. The Tigers took the lead on a Hunter sac fly and then added some insurance runs when Fielder hit a 2 RBI single to score Holaday and Jackson. Sox 4-7. The Sox were able to get one of those runs back when Gomes hit an RBI double, but that would be it and they would fall 5-7. It was a frustrating loss to watch given how one blown call put that 8th inning in play.
Red Sox 5 Tigers 7 BOXSCORE
WP: Benoit (2-0) LP: Miller (0-2)
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