Javier Baez hit a tiebreaking, two-run homer in the eighth inning and the host Detroit Tigers defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-1 on Monday.
Austin Meadows led off the inning with a single against Austin Davis (0-1). Ryan Brasier replaced Davis on the mound, and Baez hammered a 2-2 fastball for his first homer with the Tigers. Baez signed a six-year, $140 million contract with Detroit as a free agent during the offseason.
Baez had a walk-off, ninth-inning single in the Tigers’ season-opening win against the Chicago White Sox on Friday.
Meadows had two hits and scored two runs, while Miguel Cabrera supplied two hits and an RBI for Detroit.
Michael Fulmer (1-0) pitched an inning of scoreless relief and was credited with the victory. Gregory Soto pitched the ninth for his first save of the season.
The Red Sox were limited to four hits, two from Rafael Devers, in the opener of a three-game series.
Both starting pitchers were largely effective.
J.D. Martinez’s fifth-inning solo homer was the only hit Detroit’s Matt Manning allowed in six innings. Manning recorded two strikeouts and walked none in his 68-pitch outing.
Boston’s Michael Wacha lasted 4 1/3 innings, giving up one run on two hits and three walks with four strikeouts.
The Tigers scored in the bottom of the first. Meadows singled with one out and Wacha walked both Baez and Jeimer Candelario. Cabrera hit a sacrifice fly to left before Jonathan Schoop grounded out to end the inning.
Baez made a nifty diving play at shortstop to rob Christian Vazquez of a hit in the second.
Martinez crushed a fastball off Manning over the left field wall to tie the game while leading off the fifth, his first homer of the year. Manning bounced back and retired the next six batters that he faced.
Devers led off the seventh against reliever Alex Lange with a single. Lange then struck out Xander Bogaerts and Martinez before Alex Verdugo flied out.
Soto allowed a one-out double to Devers in the ninth, then set down Bogaerts and Martinez on fly balls to end the game.
–Field Level Media