David Ortiz has had his struggles during the 2010 season for the Boston Red Sox but he has been swinging the bat well as of late and on Friday night he proved it to Max Scherzer and the Detroit Tigers.
Big Papi had two home runs, estimated at 844 feet, to back up a one-run effort from Clay Buchholz as the Red Sox went on to a 7-2 win over the Tigers in front of 31,732 on a beautiful Friday night for baseball at Comerica Park.
The win for the Red Sox moves them to 19-17 but they remain 1½ games behind the Blue Jays for third place in the AL East. The Tigers, who were 12-4 at home coming into the game, fall to 20-16.
Buchholz was staked to a 5-0 lead before he even threw a pitch and had his struggles in the first inning with two walks. He ended up giving up a run in the inning but that would be it as he settled down. He had good life on his fastball and mixed in his secondary pitches quite nicely to pick up his fourth win (4-3). He went 6 1/3 innings, allowing the one run on three hits and five walks with three strikeouts.
Daniel Bard got Buchholz of a jam in the seventh and ended up allowing an unearned run in 1 2/3 innings on a hit and a walk with two strikeouts. He also hit a batter. Hideki Okajima cleaned up in the 9th, allowing a hit and had a strikeout.
The two home runs for Ortiz gives him six on the season and moves his average up to .213. Dustin Pedroia’s only hit of the night was a 2-run homer in the first inning while Bill Hall had a pinch-hit solo home run in the 9th. Darnell McDonald added two hits and Victor Martinez and Jeremy Hermida were the only starters without hits.
Marco Scutaro started the game with a single and came around to score on Pedroia’s home run. After Scherzer got VMart to ground out, he walked Kevin Youkilis and allowed a single to J.D. Drew before Papi’s monstrous blast made it 5-0.
Two first inning walks by Buchholz came back to haunt him as Brennan Boesch singled in Austin Jackson to make 5-1. Papi’s solo jack in the 4th made it 6-1.
The Tigers got it to 6-2 in the 8th off of Bard on a sac fly off the bat of Brandon Inge but Hall’s pinch-hit home run in the 9th provided the fnal margin.
Jon Lester will to continue his winning ways on Saturday night for the Red Sox. He’ll be opposed by Dontrelle Willis in a 7:05 p.m. start.
