The Red Sox are up 4-0 after three innings on Anibal Sanchez and the Detroit Tigers thanks largely to a big second inning.
The first inning was unimpressive at best for the Red Sox, though they did get their first hit of the game eight innings earlier than they did in Game 1. This time it was a base hit through the hole between third and short by Dustin Pedroia, followed shortly by an easy chopper to first base from David Ortiz to end the inning.
Jon Lester, however, was up to the task of returning the favor, allowing a couple of baserunners, but managing to keep the Tigers off the board all the same.
It was not Lester's most convincing of frames, but any fears in Red Sox fans' hearts were quickly pushed to the side when Mike Napoli took the fifth pitch of his at bat and led off the second inning with a 445 foot monster shot to dead center, producing more offense than the entire team did in their first game against Sanchez.
And that was just the beginning. Jonny Gomes hit a grounder towards Miguel Cabrera, who simply let the ball go over his glove and between his legs for a gift of a single. Stephen Drew struck out behind him, but with Xander Bogaerts coming to the plate rather than Will Middlebrooks, the best was still in store. Taking a hanging slider to left field, Xander picked up his second straight double dating back to Game 3, putting two men in scoring position for David Ross, who nearly cleared the fence with a double of his own to make it 2-0. A Jacoby Ellsbury single off of Sanchez himself would make it 3-0 before the inning was over.
Jon Lester responded by allowing some decent contact, but once again keeping runs off the board in the second. The Red Sox have to keep a close eye on him in case an implosion is in the offing, but for now they'll take the zeroes.
Should things go south, though, he'll have at least four runs to work with. A ground-rule double with one out from Mike Napoli led to a run-scoring wild pitch in the third, leaving the Red Sox ahead 4-0.