By Dave Hart
LocalSportsJournal.com
Tigers 4, Red Sox 3 – Andrew Romine’s bases loaded walk with two outs in the eighth inning propelled the Tigers to a series opening win over the Boston Red Sox on Thursday afternoon.
The Tigers snapped their three-game losing streak with the victory.
Detroit opened the scoring in the second inning before the Red Sox tied the game 1-1 with a run in the fourth.
Boston gained its first lead with two runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 3-1 advantage.
The Tigers stormed back with three runs in the bottom of the eighth to regain the lead on RBI singles by Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez and the bases loaded walk from Romine.
Cabrera’s RBI was his 1,000th as a Tiger, making him the 11th in team history to achieve that mark.
Detroit was paced offensively by new comer Erick Aybar and Cabrera with two hits apiece.
Tigers’ starting pitcher Matt Boyd took a no-decision, allowing one run on five hits in six innings of work.
Justin Wilson pitched the win for the Tigers, while Francisco Rodriguez recorded the final three outs for the save.
The Red Sox were led in a losing effort by Mookie Betts and Hanley Ramirez with two hits each.
The Tigers are now 64-57 on the season, good for second place in the American League Central Division behind the Cleveland Indians. They are three and a half games back of the Red Sox for the final playoff spot.
Record: 64-57
2nd Place in AL Central Division (5.5 games behind first-place Cleveland)
3.5 games behind Boston and Baltimore for the last playoff spot
Magic # to clinch a playoff spot: 46
Magic # to clinch an AL Central Division title: 49
Next Game: 08/19/2016 vs Boston Red Sox 7:08 p.m. @ Comerica Park
Hitting stats: Miguel Cabrera RBI (78), Victor Martinez RBI (71), Jarrod Saltalamacchia RBI (35), Andrew Romine RBI (7), Erick Aybar 2B (15).
Pitching stats: Justin Wilson W (3-4) 1 IP 0 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 1 K, Francisco Rodriguez SV (34) 1 IP 1 H 0 R 0 ER 1 BB 0 K, Matt Boyd 6 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 2 BB 4 K.
