Article:Tigers Walk Around Dice-K, Can't score

Diasuke Matsuzaka was shaky yesterday; he allowed just two hits and one run. The shaky part: he walked eight Detroit Tigers. He was what some may call effectively wild. Dice-K only recorded one strike out in his five innings of work. The Red Sox have still yet to lose a game that he pitches in, but they got lucky yesterday that the Tigers bats were not working, in the 6-3 Red Sox win. Jeremy Bonderman was not much better than Dice-K as he picked up his third loss of the young season. He pitched six innings allowing seven hits and four earned runs. He was able to keep his walks down only walking two and he struck out four Boston batters.

Manny Ramirez got things started for the Sox offense in the second inning when he clubbed a 1-2 pitch for a double. Mike Lowell then came up behind him in the five hole and put the first pitch down the left field line and into the Tigers bullpen.

In the fourth inning Mike Lowell got on base to lead things off. And on the next pitch Kevin Youkilis made Comerica Park look small with a blast down the left field line and over the Tigers bullpen into the crowd. The Tigers would answer back in the bottom half of the inning Curtis Granderson knocked an RBI base hit.

In the seventh David Ortiz hit single and scored Dustin Pedroia, who was previously standing on second base. The Tigers would then try to mount a comeback off of Red Sox reliever Craig Hansen who was pitching in his second inning. He walked two and gave up a two run hit to Marcus Thames, cutting the Boston lead to 5-3.

After Hideki Okajima put a stop to the Tigers rally with an inning and a third of scoreless ball, David Ortiz put an exclamation point on the Red Sox lead when he put a 2-2 pitch in the right field stands off of Tigers closer Todd Jones in the top of the ninth inning. The shot was Ortiz’s sixth of the season and he appears to be out of his early season slump.

With a three run lead the Red Sox brought in closer Jonathan Papelbon to put a quick end to the game. In which he did just that. Papelbon set down all three Detroit Tigers that he saw and recorded his tenth save of the season. The 6-3 win extends the Red Sox winning streak to four games and the loss extends the Tigers losing streak to four games.

The teams will face off again tonight with Tim Wakefield (2-1) going up against Nate Robertson (1-3). Wakefield has always struggled in Detroit for some reason and will be looking to get over that hump, as Robertson looks to get back on the winning track, first pitch is at 7:05 PM.

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