Justin Verlander was dominant all game, striking out 10 Red Sox while giving up only four hits. Unfortunately for him, one of those hits was an authoritative home run off the bat of Mike Napoli. With one out in the top of the seventh, Napoli stood in against Verlander and ran the count full before silencing the anxious Detroit crowd with a towering blast.
Tigers vs. Red Sox Game 3 ALCS update: Mike Napoli’s HR breaks scoreless tie
The tense pitchers’ duel was broken up by Mike Napoli, who launched a home run over the left field wall to give the Red Sox the lead, 1-0.
The Tigers attempted to respond in the bottom half of the inning, as Victor Martinez drove a one-out single up the middle. Jhonny Peralta flew out to right, but then manager John Farrell went to his bullpen and brought in Craig Breslow to face lefty Alex Avila. Avila walked, but then Omar Infante grounded out weakly to end the threat.
John Lackey exited the game after 6⅔ innings having tallied eight strikeouts and scattering four hits. Most importantly, he surrendered zero earned runs. He wasn’t happy about it, though.
“Yoy gombo shombee!”
The Tigers again threatened to tie in the bottom of the eighth. Breslow walked Austin Jackson with one out and was lifted for Junichi Tazawa. Torii Hunter lined a sharp single down the right field line to move Jackson to third to bring to the plate Miguel Cabrera, Greatest Right-Handed Hitter on the Planet and (Presumably) in the Universe. Tazawa blew him away with fastballs and struck him out. Koji Uehara entered and struck out Prince Fielder on three pitches to quell the rally.
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