MLB Game Recap - Boston at Detroit
Sun Jul 22, 2018 1:10 PM EDT

SD
10
PHI
2
F
BAL
4
TOR
5
F
PIT
9
CIN
2
F
BOS
9
DET
1
F
MIA
4
TB
6
F
ATL
2
WSH
6
F
LAD
11
MIL
2
F
MIN
3
KC
5
F
STL
2
CHC
7
F
CLE
0
TEX
5
F
SF
5
OAK
6
F(10)
HOU
5
LAA
14
F
COL
1
ARI
6
F
CHW
2
SEA
8
F
SD
0
PHI
5
F
NYM
NYY
PPD

July 22, 2018 1:10 PM

Final

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

R

H

E

Boston

0

2

0

4

0

0

3

0

0

9

9

1

Detroit

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

1

5

0

W: Sale (11-4)

L: Hardy (3-3)

BOS - HR: Bradley Jr. (7)

DET - HR: Candelario (14)

Sale shuts down Tigers in Boston's 9-1 victory
Sun Jul 22, 2018 6:44 PM

DETROIT (AP) Chris Sale is drawing comparisons from his manager to another dominant left-hander.

"He's reminding me a lot of Randy - Randy Johnson," Boston manager Alex Cora said. "The thing with Randy, it looked like he was always grinding. With (Sale) it looks effortless right now."

Sale struck out nine in six scoreless innings, and Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a three-run homer to lift the Red Sox to a 9-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday. Sale allowed two hits, lowered his ERA to an American League-best 2.13 and won his sixth straight decision.

The Red Sox are 19-4 in their last 23 games, and the AL East leaders cruised through the finale of this series after scoring just one run in the previous twonights at Detroit.

Blaine Hardy (3-3) allowed four runs and five hits in three-plus innings. Jeimer Candelario homered for the Tigers in the seventh.

Sale (11-4) has won each of his last five starts, allowing one run in 33 innings in that span. He had gone five straight starts with at least 11 strikeouts - and only one walk in each - but that streak came to an end when he was lifted Sunday after 99 pitches.

"I feel good. I feel like a broken record sometimes, but we scored nine runs today?" Sale said. "You get a padded lead like that, you can kind of dig in and just try to find a groove and keep going."

Boston scored twice in the second on RBI groundouts by Rafael Devers and Eduardo Nunez, then the Red Sox broke the game open in the fourth.

With men on second and third and nobody out, Devers hit a grounder to first baseman John Hicks, who immediately threw home - only to have Steve Pearce, the Boston runner at third, stay put. Devers reached on that fielder's choice, loading the bases.

"That's an instinct play, and you know the situation. We've got our backup catcher playing first base," Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He needs to look around and figure out what's happening before he makes that throw, but he feels like the runner is going to go on that ball."

Drew VerHagen came on to relieve Hardy, and Nunez greeted him with an RBI single off the glove of Candelario, the third baseman. Xander Bogaerts, the runner on second, held up when he made it to third, but Devers - who had started the play on first - nearly reached third himself before stopping because Bogaerts was still there. Devers was tagged out .

The Red Sox weren't hurt much by that baserunning mishap. Bradley followed with his seventh homer of the year, giving Boston a 6-0 lead.

Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run triple in the seventh, and J.D. Martinez added a sacrifice fly.

The game was delayed 1 hour, 35 minutes at the start because of rain.

TOUGH OUT

Candelario was impressive even in the lopsided defeat. He battled Sale through 21 pitches in two plate appearances, finally grounding out to third both times.

His homer came off reliever Brandon Workman.

"He was a pain," Sale said. "Put good at-bats together, and obviously later in the game ran into one. I don't know what I was doing or what he was doing, but I need to figure something out."

TRAINER'S ROOM

Red Sox: 2B Brock Holt sat out a second straight game after exiting Friday night with a bruised knee.

UP NEXT

Boston heads to Baltimore for a three-game series. Rick Porcello (11-4) takes the mound for the Red Sox on Monday night against Kevin Gausman (4-7).

The Tigers travel for a three-game set at Kansas City. Detroit's Francisco Liriano (3-5) starts the opener Monday night against Heath Fillmyer (0-1).

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More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball

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Follow Noah Trister at www.Twitter.com/noahtrister

Pitchers of Record

Boston IP H ER BB K ERA WHIP
C. Sale (W, 11-4) 6 2 0 0 9 0.00 0.333
Detroit IP H ER BB K ERA WHIP
B. Hardy (L, 3-3) 3 5 4 0 3 12.00 1.667

Batting Leaders

Boston AB H R HR RBI BB TB SB RC
X. Bogaerts 3 2 2 0 0 0 4 0 2.7
J. Bradley Jr. 4 2 1 1 3 0 5 0 2.5
Detroit AB H R HR RBI BB TB SB RC
J. Candelario 4 1 1 1 1 0 4 0 1.0
N. Castellanos 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0.7

Team Comparison

BOS DET
At Bats 35 32
Hits 9 5
Batting Average .257 .156
On Base Percentage .270 .229
Slugging Percentage 0.457 0.281
Doubles 2 1
Triples 1 0
Home Runs 1 1
Total Bases 16 9
Walks 1 2
Strikeouts 8 10
Stolen Bases 0 0
Caught Stealing 0 0
Runners Left On Base 1 7
Hits / At Bats with Runners In Scoring Position 3/6 0/4
Double Plays Fielded 0 0
Errors 1 0

2018 Reg Season - BOS Leads Series 4-2

Date Result Winner Loser
Tue Jun 5 DET 0 @ BOS 6 S. Wright A. Lewicki
Wed Jun 6 DET 1 @ BOS 7 E. Rodriguez B. Hardy
Thu Jun 7 DET 7 @ BOS 2 M. Boyd J. Beeks
Fri Jul 20 BOS 1 @ DET 0 D. Price M. Boyd
Sat Jul 21 BOS 0 @ DET 5 M. Fiers B. Johnson
Sun Jul 22 BOS 9 @ DET 1 C. Sale B. Hardy

Game Information

Stadium: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan
Attendance: 25,012
Game Time: 2:55
Weather: 68F, Cloudy
Wind:
Umpires: Home Plate - ?, First Base - ?, Second Base - ?, Third Base - ?