BOSTON — Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run homer, Nick Pivetta struck out eight over five innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the skidding Detroit Tigers 11-7 on Tuesday night.
Alex Verdugo, Hunter Renfroe and Kike Hernandez also went deep for Boston, which led 8-2 after three innings but needed to hold off the Tigers late in a slugfest that featured 24 hits and 13 pitchers.
Detroit has lost six straight and 11 of 12.
The Tigers had the bases loaded with one out in the eighth, but Matt Barnes came out of the bullpen and got Miguel Cabrera to ground into a double play that ended the threat.
Barnes didn’t allow a baserunner in the ninth, picking up his seventh save.
Cabrera went 0 for 5, striking out twice and grounding into two double plays. The 11-time All-Star with two AL MVP awards and four batting titles saw his batting average plummet to .105 (6 for 57).
The 38-year-old Cabrera is in an 0-for-23 slump with 13 strikeouts. He’s fanned two times in six straight games.
JaCoby Jones had a three-run homer, keying a four-run rally in the sixth that pulled Detroit to 9-7. Robbie Grossman went 3 for 3, walked twice and finished with three RBI, but the Tigers couldn’t overcome their slow start and struck out 13 times.
Pivetta (4-0) allowed three runs on six hits and two walks.
He was replaced in the sixth by Austin Brice, who didn’t last the inning. After allowing a leadoff single, Brice hit a batter with a one-out pitch and Jones made him pay with a line-drive homer to left that pulled Detroit to 9-6. Grossman added an RBI single, his third hit of the night.
Boston was up 4-0 after the first and got three more runs in the second on homers by Verdugo and Bogaerts. Verdugo’s solo shot off reliever Alex Lange was his fourth homer of the season. After J.D. Martinez reached on a single, Bogaerts drove a 1-1 fastball out to left and Boston led 7-2.
Michael Fulmer (1-2) started for the Tigers and got only two outs, allowing four runs – two earned – on four hits and a walk. He also hurt himself with a throwing error while trying to start a double play.
Renfroe, who singled and doubled in his first two at-bats, hit a towering solo homer in the fifth to push Boston’s lead to 9-3.
NOTES: Boston left-hander Chris Sale, who underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020, threw off a mound. Chaim Bloom, the team’s chief baseball officer, said Sale’s rehabilitation at the team’s facility in Florida is going well but the Red Sox aren’t about to set a target date for the pitcher’s return.
“Hopefully, I think we’re getting closer to where we can start mapping out a timetable. I don’t have one, but he is progressing,” Bloom said. “It was pretty light work, but the next step is obviously to get into regular mound work and mound work with some intensity, and then we can start thinking about facing hitters.”
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