Red Sox vs Tigers recap
Red Sox vs Tigers boxscore
Reason No. 382 why I love baseball: "the big inning."
The big inning is what helped the Red Sox knock off the Tigers yesterday, 6-3. After trailing 3-0 heading into the third, Dontrelle Willis blew up and the Sox took advantage. Back-to-back walks with the bases loaded made it 3-2. Then Bay ripped a double to score both J.D. Drew and Dustin Pedroia. Mike Lowell knocked in another with a groundout and Rocco Baldelli singled in a run.
And that's what the Sox needed to win.
After one bad inning of his own, Tim Wakefield settled down. Wakefield went 6.2 innings, allowed eight hits, three runs, struck out three and walked none. This was Wakefield's only start of the season where he did not allow a walk. Nice job, Timmy.
Justin Masterson (.2 IP, 2K) and Hideki Okajima (.2IP, 1H, 1K) earned holds. Jonathan Papelbon (1IP, 1H, 1BB) earned the save. Once again, not the cleanest save from Papelbon, but we'll take it. His WHIP now stands at 1.46 -- so much higher than we're used to out of him.
It was a sweep, though, and that's a beautiful sight to see. The Sox are going to hit a hard wall, however, as they start a big series with the Texas Rangers tonight at 7 p.m. The Rangers (31-22) are the third best team in the AL -- behind us and the Yankees. It's Brad Penny versus Kevin Millwood tonight.