He now has 97 RBIs this season.
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David Ortiz gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead in the first with his 22nd career homer at Comerica Park – a blast deep into the stands in right field.
Bradley gave Boston a four-run lead with the second two-run homer of the first inning, but Martinez pulled the Tigers within 4-2 with his two-run shot in the second.
The Red Sox won at Baltimore on Wednesday night, and manager John Farrell said they arrived at their hotel around 4 a.m. Thursday about nine hours before the first pitch. He had better power, better velocity than maybe we anticipated.
“But he gets a breaking ball up in the zone that David hits out of the park”.
“He’s one of those guys that you don’t want to let beat you”, Detroit catcher James McCann said. The substitutions he made tonight turned out to be inconsequential moves at the bottom of the lineup, but he has not shown any hesitation when making substitutions to find some more speed. “If there’s a big spot, you don’t want to let that guy hurt you”.
The Tigers are sliding in the opposite direction with losses in 10 of their last 13 contests to fall 3 1/2 back of the Baltimore Orioles for the second AL wild card.
Porcello allowed four hits and two walks while striking out eight. It was his 18th home run this year. Ryan Howard also homered for Philadelphia, which avoided a three-game series sweep.
“Thankfully”, Farrell said, “Comerica is 420 to center”. The offense was quiet once again, and the Tigers fell by a score of 3-2.
“It was fun. It hasn’t been fun for the last three days”, manager Brad Ausmus said.
Pinch-hitter Ehire Adrianza broke a tie with a run-scoring single in a two-run seventh inning, helping Johnny Cueto win his 14th game in San Francisco’s victory over NY. His fifth inning moonshot was a timely one, occurring just before a 72-minute rain delay and ultimately proving to be the difference in the Red Sox’ 3-2 win over the Tigers. Their pitchers did a nice job, our pitchers did a nice job. “We kind of wanted to match his intensity”.
In the ninth, Justin Upton hit a long fly ball to straight away centerfield which landed a few inches below the top of the wall and just out of the reach of Jackie Bradley Jr.
For the sixth and seventh, recent-call-up Heath Hembree was brought out to pitch. His only major mistake was J.D. “It (four-out save) was always in the thought”. Dustin Pedroia, Xander Bogaerts and Ortiz started it with singles to load the bases, but Mookie Betts hit into a double play.
Uncharacteristically, Betts grounded into a tailor-made double play. Martinez also singled, finishing the night 2-for-3 plus a walk.
With the way Drew Pomeranz was pitching, the Red Sox were probably hoping three runs would be enough, and to that end, that they would only need a couple innings at most out of their bullpen. Henry Owens was being brought up from the minors after Rodriguez still felt some hamstring tenderness following a Friday night bullpen.
DETROIT (AP) – Michael Fulmer has been baffling teams throughout a highly successful rookie season. He could be the first rookie ERA leader since Tigers RHP Mark Fidrych in 1976.
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“He’s a very good pitcher who is very aggressive”, he said. “Very passionate. That comes across very clear”.
