Boston homered twice off Fulmer in the first inning and eventually scored six runs against him – the most he’s allowed in the majors – in a 10-2 victory Friday night.
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“I haven’t been told anything yet”, Fulmer said. “But whatever they think, I’m going to go do what they ask and just work on this time off and try to polish up some things”. And two titles that still fit it afterward.
“Porcello was throwing his sinker down and his four-seamer up”, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said, “mixing in the occasional off-speed pitch”. Martinez’s two-run homer in the second inning.
Boston Red Sox’s Jackie Bradley Jr., right, rounds the bases past Detroit Tigers third baseman Casey McGehee after hitting a two-run home run during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, in Detroit.
Michael Fulmer’s Rookie of the Year campaign hit a snag, as the Red Sox got a career-high six runs off him in 52/3 innings.
The pitch to Ortiz was a fastball, a 95 mile-per-hour heater that Fulmer tried to sneak by Big Papi on the inner half of the plate. But the Red Sox are in a race, themselves, a half-game behind the Blue Jays in the AL East and now holding that first wild card spot. “He’s shut down multiple-loss situations we’ve been in. He’s going to come after you with the fastball, and we were looking for it”. Fulmer (10-4) allowed 10 hits, including two homers, and walked one while striking out one. It wasn’t a product of diminished velocity, and both Fulmer and Ausmus rebuffed the idea that the rookie might have been suffering from fatigue.
“After one start? When he’s been phenomenal until this day?”
“He’s gonna be a Hall of Famer one day”.
“I think that was the case with some of the fastballs he threw”. The Red Sox pounded out 16 hits.
“They weren’t chasing sliders”. They’ve seen the right-hander go deep into games, as he did in his previous start, when he threw a complete-game shutout for the first time in his career, a 7-0 blanking of the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
“They’re a fastball-hitting team and they were ready for the fastball and I feel like every time I went inside, they were just ready for it”.
Much to his credit, Fulmer settled down after the Bradley Jr. home run and retired the next eight hitters he faced. But the inexorable Red Sox offense came back for more in the sixth, stringing together four seeing-eye singles to plate two more runs and knock Fulmer out of the game.
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“I thought the key was the sixth inning”, Farrell said. “I think the sixth, just some bad luck, ultimately their guy was just better”. He has pitched against them twice with one start, which was August 7, 2015 when he allowed five runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings. And Fulmer was right – on this night, he was simply outdone. “It’s always easier to pitch with a cushion, especially against that offense”.
