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J-Up (two 3-run HRs), Tigers thump Red Sox
- Updated: August 21, 2016
DETROIT — Justin Upton, denied a potential game-tying home run by Comerica Park’s deep center field Saturday night, put a pair of three-run homers into the left-field seats Sunday afternoon, powering the Tigers to a four-game series split against the Red Sox with a 10-5 win.
The win kept Detroit seven games behind Cleveland in the American League Central. Boston remained a half-game behind Toronto for the AL East lead.
“Big split,” said Justin Verlander, who tossed six innings of one-run ball for the win. “In the big picture, we’ve played these guys well this year and they’re a really good ballclub. And we’re a really good ballclub, a little hobbled, but to come away with a split today was big.”
Upton, who had three days out of the lineup to work on his swing before returning Saturday, reaped the benefits on Sunday as he and J.D. Martinez combined for eight RBIs against Red Sox fill-in starter Henry Owens. Martinez, batting cleanup on his 29th birthday with Victor Martinez off, doubled home two runs in the third before Upton pounced on a hanging breaking ball. Two innings later, Upton turned on Owens’ fastball, sending it midway up the left-field seats for an 8-0 lead.
“We’re sitting there in a 2-0 ballgame and then all of a sudden, it’s the Upton show at that point,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
The damage comprised the Tigers’ best run support for Verlander since June 16. He cruised, his lone run allowed coming when Andrew Benintendi tripled and scored in the sixth, before Benintendi’s first Major League home run — a two-run shot — fueled Boston’s four-run seventh off Shane Greene.
“It’s a broken record. He keeps going out there and giving us a chance to win,” manager Brad Ausmus said.
MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDFree passes don’t pay: Though Martinez entered Sunday batting .455 (20-for-44) over his last 11 games, the Red Sox opted to intentionally walk Miguel Cabrera ahead of him with first base open and two outs in the third. Martinez didn’t sting the ball as punishment, but he got …
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