BOSTON – In a Patriots' Day special, the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox matched up in an earlier-than-usual matchup – 11 a.m. on Monday, April 20 – in the finale of the four-game series at Fenway Park.
Both starters had less-than-ideal outings: Red Sox right-hander Sonny Gray left in the third inning with right hamstring tightness, and Tigers right-hander Jack Flaherty failed to complete the fourth inning after six walks.
The Tigers walked eight batters, with the Red Sox drawing three walks off Flaherty in a two-run second inning and two walks off left-handed reliever Tyler Holton in a three-run seventh inning.
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The Tigers (12-11) and Red Sox (9-13) split the four-game series.
Next up, the Tigers will return home to Comerica Park for a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers, beginning Tuesday (6:40 p.m., Detroit SportsNet).
In Monday's game, Jahmai Jones came off the bench as a pinch-hitter for Kerry Carpenter against left-handed reliever Jovani Morán after walks from Riley Greene and Dillon Dingler.
He reached out and pulled a down-and-away changeup with two strikeouts, placing the ball over the head of the shortstop and putting it into left-center field.
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oh Jahmai where do i begin pic.twitter.com/XH9pkCP6vH
The Red Sox responded immediately against left-handed reliever Brant Hurter, sparked by a one-out double to Carlos Narváez. The bigger issue? Letting Narváez steal third base for the second steal of his 138-game MLB career. He then scored when Roman Anthony fought off an inside sinker for an RBI single into center field.
The Red Sox kept the momentum rolling with three runs in the seventh inning, taking a 6-3 lead.
In the seventh, the Red Sox loaded the bases with one out – Masataka Yoshida (single), Trevor Story (walk), Caleb Durbin (single) – for pinch-hitter Ceddanne Rafaela against left-handed reliever Tyler Holton.
Rafaela fell behind in the count, but he pushed a down-and-away changeup into right field, producing a two-RBI single for a 5-3 lead. A wild pitch from Holton advanced Rafaela to third with two outs; he then scored for a 6-3 lead on Narváez's RBI single.
The Red Sox tacked on two more runs in the eighth inning against right-handed reliever Drew Anderson for an 8-3 advantage. Anderson has a 7.94 ERA across 11⅓ innings in seven games.
Before the late-game letdown, the Tigers and Red Sox traded two runs across the first four innings.
The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in a miserable second inning for Flaherty, who walked three batters and threw the ball away for an error.
On the error, Flaherty fielded a bunt from Narváez, forcing Caleb Durbin to slam on the breaks and retreat to third base after getting three-quarters of the way to home plate. Instead of running at Durbin, Flaherty made a critical mistake in trying to throw the ball to third baseman Hao-Yu Lee. The ball tipped off Lee's glove and rolled into foul territory, allowing the Red Sox to score their first run.
The second run came on a bases-loaded walk from Wilyer Abreu with two outs. Flaherty then bounced back by inducing an inning-ending groundout against Masataka Yoshida to strand the bases loaded.
Flaherty surrendered two runs (zero earned runs) on three hits and six walks with three strikeouts across 3⅓ innings, throwing 73 pitches.