BOSTON (AP) — Dustin Pedroia hit a tiebreaking homer and drove in three runs to support Clay Buchholz’s eight solid innings, leading the Boston Red Sox over the Detroit Tigers 7-3 Monday night for their third straight win.
The Red Sox opened a 10-game homestand — their longest of the season — after taking two of three at Yankee Stadium over the weekend.
Will Middlebrooks had a two-run homer and Carl Crawford added an RBI triple for Boston.
Austin Jackson began the game with a homer and Miguel Cabrera had an RBI single for the Tigers, who lost for the fourth time in five games.
Buchholz (9-3) allowed two earned runs and five hits. He improved to 5-1 with a 2.43 ERA in his last eight starts.
Max Scherzer (10-6) gave up five runs in 6 1-3 innings, striking out nine.
With the game tied 2-all in the sixth, Pedroia homered into the first row of seats above the Green Monster after Crawford drew a leadoff walk.
Detroit had taken a 1-0 lead when Jackson hit Buchholz’s second pitch of the game into the first row of seats above the left-field wall. Quintin Berry followed with a double off the wall, but the right-hander retired the next three batters, grabbing Cabrera’s hard one-hop shot back to the mound for the first out before getting the next two easily.
Boston took a 2-1 edge in the bottom half. Jacoby Ellsbury drew a leadoff walk and scored on Crawford triple’s off the left-field wall. Crawford scored on Pedroia’s groundout.
The Tigers tied it at 2 in the third. Omar Infante tripled off the left-field wall and scored on Cabrera’s single. But with the bases loaded, Delmon Young bounced into an inning-ending double play.
Buchholz then retired the next nine batters before Detroit scored an unearned run in the seventh.
Brennan Boesch opened the inning by striking out, but reached when catcher Kelly Shoppach had the ball get away from him and hit Boesch as he was running to first on the missed third strike. One out later, Alex Avila had an RBI double into the right-center field gap, closing the score to 4-3.
In the seventh, Ellsbury’s RBI single — the last batter Scherzer faced — came after Shoppach had his secondcareer triple, sending a drive to the center-field wall that caromed away from Jackson and rolled toward left.
Scherzer was sharp after Boston’s two-run first, holding the Red Sox to a pair of singles until Pedroia’s homer.
Middlebrooks homered off reliever Phil Coke in the eighth.
NOTES: Detroit’s Jim Leyland managed his 3,278th game, moving him into 15th place all-time. … With the non-waiver trading deadline approaching Tuesday, Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine opened his pregame news conference by joking: “I’ve been assured I’m not going to be traded.” … Valentine also said DH David Ortiz, eligible to come off the 15-day DL after being sidelined with a strained right Achilles, was unable do some agility running over the weekend, but was “running in the pool” on Monday. “He’s not far away (from returning), but I don’t know if Wednesday’s the magical day,” Valentine said. … Shoppach’s other triple came at Kansas City on May 7. … A roar and chats “USA! USA!” were heard when the center-field board showed an updated Olympic medal count. … The Red Sox took three of four from the Tigers at Fenway Park in late May.
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