Rapid Reactions: Tigers Lose to Red Sox in the Bottom of the Ninth

Red Sox 4, Tigers 3 (box score)

• First of all, great start by Justin Verlander. He kept the Tigers close with eight innings of three run ball with nine strikeouts and zero walks. He ended the night with a very reasonable 114 pitches, so chalk one up for not needing to reduce his strikeouts to pitch deep into games. He made two mistakes, and payed for it with two solo homers. Still, you can’t argue with what JV gave the club today, and against Boston, no less.
• Victor Martinez failed to score from third on a fly ball to left field in the second inning — a run the Tigers would very much have liked to have. Everyone — including the Red Sox — was surprised to see him remain on the bag. Not sure where the disconnect was, but Gene Lamont needs to make sure he scores there.
• There’s been a lot of talk about Brennan Boesch‘s lack of home run power this year, so it was nice to see him poke one out around the right field foul pole in the eighth inning. The fact that Miguel Cabrera also homered right behind him made it even better.
• Can we get some late inning bullpen support? The Tigers really haven’t gotten any help back there outside of a very good Jose Valverde. Joaquin Benoit was removed from the setup role, but the Perry/Schlereth combo didn’t get the job done last night (not Perry’s fault though), and Al Alburquerque failed tonight. This is why it appears that Phil Coke is set to join the bullpen.

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