Tigers-Red Sox: Fueled By Brawl, Boston Breezes past Detroit, 7-5

An inning after the Detroit Tigers' best hitter, Miguel Cabrera, was hit on the hand by Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Junichi Tazawa, the Tigers' 20-year-old starting pitcher Rick Porcello retaliated and went head-hunting against the Red Sox's best hitter, Kevin Youkilis.

Porcello clearly intended to plunk Youkilis and did so, hitting him in the upper back.

Tazawa’s plunking of Cabrera was not intentional; the Japanese rookie, making his first major league start and having already allowed back-to-back singles with one out in the first inning, did not want to load the bases.

Inexplicably, the Tigers thought it was.

Youkilis turned to face the backstop, then sprinted toward the mound. This caught the umpires and catcher Alex Avila by surprise. The Tigers' infielders weren’t expecting it either.

Youkilis was able to run toward Porcello without anyone attempting to hold him back.

Halfway to the mound, he took off his helmet, then, a few paces later, chucked it at Porcello. Porcello evaded the helmet, but couldn’t backpedal fast enough to evade Youkilis, who was closing in.

Youkilis grabbed him and pushed him toward the first base line. Youkilis, 20 pounds heavier than Porcello, held on for about 15 yards, then attempted to throw him to the ground. He succeeded, but hit the ground hard as well.

They grappled for a few seconds before the fight was quickly broken up by the flurry of teammates who joined the fray. Both were ejected.

Boston third baseman Mike Lowell, originally given the night off to rest, took Youkilis’s place.

Porcello, clearly ticked as he walked off the field, was just 15 pitches into his outing. Chris Lambert, who allowed six runs on seven hits in one and two-thirds innings against the Minnesota Twins in his only previous outing with Detroit, relieved Porcello.

Lambert, a 26-year-old who was 12-8 as a starter with Triple-A Toledo prior to his promotion, continued his rough stint in the majors. David Ortiz greeted him by ringing a single through the shift on the right-side.

Jason Bay was next. He hit a combined .213 in June and July and has been hampered with a hamstring injury since the beginning of August.

Bay returned after missing five of the previous six games to start the series finale against the New York Yankees and even though he entered the second game of this series against the Tigers two for his past seven, he repeatedly hit the ball hard.

He continued this trend against Lambert, crushing the first pitch, a straight 88 mph fastball, out of the ballpark, literally, as it touched down on Lansdowne Street.

It was a three-run homer. The game was tied, and the Red Sox, fueled from the brawl that was spurred on by Youkilis, had all the momentum.

Detroit tried to regain it, but Tazawa was as tough as nails. The 23-year-old, who surrendered a game-winning home run to the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez in his major league debut five days ago, allowed a one out triple to Magglio Ordonez in the third inning.

The go-ahead run was 90-feet away.

Tazawa didn’t let a fourth Tigers' run score. His fastball-curveball combination took care of Avila. His strikeout of the 22-year-old catcher was a recurring theme: Brandon Inge looked at three pitches, two fastballs and a cutter, and took the slow walk back to the dugout as well.

Red Sox first baseman Victor Martinez erased Dustin Pedroia, who walked to begin the bottom of the third inning, from the base paths by grounding into a deflating double play. Given how Tazawa got out of the jam, Boston had to take advantage.

Lowell made sure they did. On a 3-1 count, the ultimate hitters’ count, he saw a fastball, as many do in this situation, and hit a frozen rope into the Green Monster seats in left. The Red Sox took the lead and wouldn’t relinquish it.

This was due to the stellar pitching of Tazawa. He continued to blow away the Tigers via strikeout, disposing of both Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco to end the fourth inning. He struck out the first hitter of the fifth, then retired the next two hitters on two pitches.

With five innings under his belt he was in line for the win. Given the way his outing started, it appeared it would only finish badly. But, he persevered in his debut against the Yankees, and he persevered again and stayed poised against the Tigers.

Lowell provided some insurance in the bottom of the fifth, heightening Tazawa’s chances of collecting his first major league victory. He smacked his second home run of the game, becoming the first Red Sox player coming off the bench to hit two home runs since Joe Floyd did so during the “Impossible Dream” season of 1967.

Reliever Fernando Cabrera, just called up from Triple-A Pawtucket, pitched a scoreless sixth, then, after a lengthy rain delay, Takashi Saito pitched a perfect seventh.

Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury added a seventh run on his own. He hit a slow chopper back to the mound and Tigers reliever Ryan Perry, aware of Ellsbury's blistering speed, hurried the throw. It got past Ryan Raburn and Ellsbury scampered into second base.

He was in scoring position, but that wasn’t enough for Ellsbury. He stole third, then after Pedroia reached base, Perry balked, allowing Ellsbury to jog home.

Closer Jonathan Papelbon allowed a two-run home run to Granderson in the ninth, but Boston’s lead was safe. Tazawa, who was pitching in the Japanese Independent League at this time last year, got his first major league win.

Tazawa might not have won if not for the brawl, which was reminiscent of the fight between the Red Sox's Jason Varitek and A-Rod during the 2004 season.

Boston went 41-19 after the Varitek-Rodriguez fight, then won the World Series.

Maybe the Youkilis-Porcello fight will have the same effect.