Red Sox-Tigers: Benches Clear As Boston Earns Hard-Fought 7-5 Win

It should have been a LOT easier for rookie RHP Junichi Tazawa in his first major league start.

After he loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first inning, he induced a ground ball to shortstop Nick Green that should have resulted in a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. However, Green fielded the ball awkwardly and made a bad throw to Dustin Pedroia at the second base bag.

E-6. No out was recorded. A run scored on the play.

Rather than escape with a scoreless inning, Tazawa found himself having to battle to get out of the inning. The error cost him LOTS of pitches and led to an unnecessarily brief outing, but the native of Japan composed himself rather nicely. He allowed three runs (only one earned) in the first inning and then shut the Tigers down on just one hit for the remainder of his five-inning effort.

The only other hit he surrendered was a one-out triple to Magglio Ordonez in the third inning...to which he responded by striking out both C Alex Avila and 3B Brandon Inge to preserve a tie ballgame.

Tazawa struck out six and walked two in earning his first major league win…he also unwittingly set the stage for a benches-clearing incident.

In the first inning, he hit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera on the hand with an 0-2 pitch. It was the second time in two days that he was hit by a pitch. Detroit starter Rick Porcello, only 20 years old and trying to prove himself to his teammates, responded by throwing a pitch high and tight to Sox 1B Victor Martinez in the bottom of the inning. An inning later, the young righty hit 3B Kevin Youkilis in the back with the first pitch of the inning—it was the second time in two nights that Youk was hit with a pitch, as well.

(NOTE: It was Porcello’s second hit batsman in 112 IP this season—Youkilis has been on the receiving end of both pitches)

Youkilis charged the mound, threw his batting helmet at Porcello, and wrestled Porcello to the ground. The benches emptied. As base-brawls go, this one was relatively tame. No additional and unnecessary haymakers were thrown. No one pulled a Mickey Rivers (a sneak attack from a marginal ballplayer in which a front-of-the-rotation starter has his shoulder pulled from his socket).

Pitcher and batter were both ejected. Mike Lowell replaced Youkilis. Boston College alum Chris Lambert relieved Porcello. The game continued.

David Ortiz followed the hit-batsman with a single...Jason Bay followed Ortiz with a long home run over the Green Monster to tie the game at three apiece. Lowell would make his first appearance at the plate in the following inning and add another bomb to give the Sox the lead.

It was an advantage they would not relinquish.

In the fifth inning, the Sox third baseman added another home run, a two-run line drive into the Green Monster seats, to provide a couple of insurance runs...in so doing, he became the first Red Sox hitter to start the game on the bench and hit two or more home runs in the contest since 1967 (Joe Foy).

Manager Terry Francona said: “(Lowell) starts out there watching and pretty quickly he’s down there stretching and he ends up having a huge impact on the outcome of the game, that’s not easy to do.”

Jacoby Ellsbury would score on a balk in the seventh inning to conclude the Red Sox scoring. Jonathan Papelbon surrendered a two-run home run (in a non-save situation) in the ninth inning to account for the final score.

Lambert took the loss, allowing five runs on five hits in five innings.

Jason Bay is officially BACK! Tonight’s home run was his third in his last four games.

Jacoby Ellsbury stole his 52nd base, tying Tris Speaker (1912) for the second-highest single season in franchise history.

After the game, Porcello emerged from a meeting with manager Jim Leyland and GM Dave Dombrowski and would only say: “The only thing I have to say about that is I was not intentionally trying to hit Kevin Youkilis. It was unintentional.” Okay, Pinocchio!