(Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images)
The Red Sox jumped out to an early lead which quickly slipped away as the Tigers prevented the 4-game sweep with a 7-3 win.
Salty started the scoring in the second inning with his 10th home run of the year, a solo shot to right-center. Podsednik doubled to drive in Sweeney later in the second. It looked like an easy road against Scherzer and the Tigers once again, until Beckett gave the lead up right away. The Tigers scored 3 in the third, but the lead was short lived. Salty knocked in Kevin Youkilis to tie the game up in the bottom of the inning, and that was it for the Sox offense. Detroit took the 4-3 lead and didn't look back.
Beckett did not have as stellar of a performance as recent starts, but it wasn't awful. Josh gave up 10 hits and 4 runs, and walked 1 over 7 innings. The stat that jumps out is the 1 strikeout out of the 30 batters faced. Max Scherzer settled down and did not allow the Sox to give Beckett any further run support.
The bullpen let the game slip away, giving the Sox a slim chance of a comeback. Aside from the one batter, one strikeout performance from Matt Albers, Morales and Hill stunk it up on the mound. Morales faced 5 batters, gave up 1 hit, walked 2, and gave up a run in total of 2/3 of an inning. Lefty-specialist, Rich Hill made Morales look good. Hill came in for the 9th, and gave up 2 runs on 3 hits, bringing us to the 7-3 final.
At least the Sox are still above .500 and have a good chance to move up in the division with the weekend trip to Toronto.
