Justin Upton’s two home runs punished the Red Sox, although rookie Andrew Benintendi notched his first career homer and hit a stand-up triple in a bright spot for Boston.
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“It was a great day”, he said.
“It’s fun when you can pick your team up”, said Upton, whose parents and wife were in the stands. The amiable slugger went 1 for 4 with a strikeout, but Detroit fans will always remember him for his days with the Twins.
From June 1, 2015 through Saturday – a stretch of 213 games – he was hitting.228, and was mired in another slump, going 3 for 35 with 11 strikeouts in his last 10.
When the Red Sox allow at least one home run, they are 41-43, well-matched with the Tigers who are 33-42 when allowing at least one homer. Both of his homers cleared the bullpens before landing deep in the left-field seats.
“It was a hanging breaking ball, and I got it”, Ortiz said. “Nobody likes to struggle, but at the end of the day, I was kind of buried in it”.
J.D. Martinez is red. Benintendi’s home run was a two-run shot to right field off Tigers reliever Shane Greene in the seventh inning. Then, Upton hit the first of his two home runs. He allowed six hits and eight runs in five innings. “We’re a really good ballclub that is a little hobbled right now, so to come out of here with a split was big”.
“I’ve still worked tirelessly trying to command the fastball”, Owens said after the 10-5 loss. Filling in for Eduardo Rodriguez (hamstring), Owens delivered the type of outing typical for his frustrating Red Sox career.
In the third, the Tigers put runners on second and third with no outs. Matt Barnes got two outs in the eighth, but Kimbrel was brought in for a four-out save when Miguel Cabrera came up with two on and two out and got him to line out to left.
Martinez came into the game hitting.438 since coming off the disabled list on August 3, and he poked a 1-2 pitch down the right-field line for a two-run double. He’s working through the at-bat with Martinez in pretty good shape, he gets in a 1-2 count and Martinez ends up putting the bat on the ball on a changeup that was off the plate away and pokes it inside the first-base bag.
Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the second inning of …
The 22-year-old lefty is hitting.309/.367/.400 on the season, his first in the majors.
Brad Ziegler took over for Hembree after J.D. Martinez’s home run. You can’t jog on your first one, ” he said.
Ortiz also singled in the first on a night when the Tigers honored him with a framed picture of his appearance in the 2005 All-Star game in Detroit. Instead of settling for his usual single, he took second on Martinez, leading to a joking exchange between the Red Sox star and Verlander after the inning.
“We’ve had a lot of battles, ” Verlander said.
The game was delayed by rain for one-hour, 20-minutes at the start and again for one-hour, 11-minutes just as the sixth inning was about to begin. He tipped his cap to the crowd as he walked off.
NOTES: Tigers CF Cameron Maybin (left thumb) was activated off the disabled list and returned to the starting lineup Sunday, with SS Dixon Machado being optioned back to Triple-A Toledo.
The Red Sox now travel to Tampa Bay for a four-game set at Tropicana Field.
Tigers: Off on Monday before starting a three-game series in Minnesota on Tuesday.
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The St. Louis Cardinals shut out the Philadelphia Phillies in a 9-0 thumping, the Atlanta Braves edged the Washington Nationals in a 7-6 thriller, the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Seattle Mariners by the same scoreline, the Miami Marlins beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2, and the Chicago White Sox got the better of the Oakland Athletics 4-2. Sanchez is coming off seven shutout innings in his last start.
