The Tigers are chipping away at Boston's 4-0 lead, and have pulled within two after the sixth, chasing Jon Lester from the game in the process.
Where Boston's offense has gone back into hibernation, the Tigers have given Jon Lester all sorts of trouble, putting him in some nasty situations. Oddly enough, the most dangerous one of them all was not costly--the Tigers would put two of their first three batters on in the fourth, with Lester going to a 3-0 count to backup catcher Brayan Pena (Alex Avila left the game with a knee injury) after walking Omar Infante. The fourth pitch of the at bat, however, was a called strike, and on the fifth Pena grounded back to Lester, who started (shakily) an inning-ending double play.
Lester would not prove quite so lucky in the fifth. A leadoff single allowed to Austin Jackson would come back to haunt him when, having consistently pitched Miguel Cabrera away, he came back in for pitch number seven and allowed a ringing RBI single to left field.
The sixth, too, would see the Tigers tack on a run, but this time it came after Lester had allowed two baserunners, leaving the game in favor of Junichi Tazawa. Tazawa would get an inning-ending double play of his own to keep the inning from getting too big, but only after giving up an RBI single to Pena, the man who had ended the fourth.
That means the Red Sox are three innings away from a Game 5 win, but also just two runs away from allowing what would be an incredibly deflating comeback. The lineup hasn't done what was needed to put the game away by themselves, now it's go time for the bullpen.