Home cookin', sure sounds good, to a country boy like me

To say the Boston Red Sox limped home after losing all six games on their road trip (to Tampa Bay and New York) would be an insult to cripples and drunks everywhere.

The Sox (63-48) can't hit and the bullpen is falling apart but all those troubles were forgotten for an evening as they beat Detroit (59-52), 6-5 last night at Fenway in the start of a four-game series.

The Yankees lost to the Blue Jays last night and the Rangers were idle so Boston moved up to 5.5 games behind New York in the AL East and a half game up in the Wild Card.

It only took two innings for Boston to double its output from the last three games combined against the Yankees.

Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run homer in the first off Tigers All-Star Edwin Jackson. In the second, Nick Green hit a solo shot and David Ortiz knocked in Jacoby Ellsbury (2 hits, 2 runs) with an RBI single.

Brad Penny gave his usual six inning performance and it was better than most of his recent outings: six innings, three earned runs on six hits, one walk and two strikeouts.

Magglio Ordonez (3 hits) tripled home Miguel Cabrera in the fourth and Brandon Inge scored Ordonez with a single.

An inning later, Detroit cut it to 4-3 when Marcus Thames knocked in Curtis Granderson with a sacrifice fly.

Jason Bay hit a solo homer in the fifth that just stayed fair down the line in left.

What would a Red Sox game be without the bullpen giving up a lead? Manny Delcarmen did the honors last night in the seventh. Placido Polanco (3 hits) had an RBI single and Marcus Thames' RBI double tied the game at five.

Nick Green, who has been an automatic out for the last month and a half, knocked in the winning run (J.D. Drew) with a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Jonathan Papelbon came on in the eighth with runners on second and third, two outs and Granderson at the plate. Papelbon got him to pop out to catcher Victor Martinez and then he recorded a 1-2-3 ninth for his 28th save of the season.

23-year-old rookie Junichi Tazawa gets his first MLB start tonight against Tigers rookie Rick Porcello.

Red Sox escape Detroit with lives and series win

After suffering its most devastating loss of the early season (10-9 on Wednesday), the Red Sox exhibited the sign of a solid team as they bounced back with a 5-1 win last night in Detroit.

The win allowed them to take three out of four from the rudderless Tigers, the first stop on a three city trip for Boston (23-14).

What made Wednesday so disappointing was the fact that the Red Sox twice battled back from four-run deficits, only to have bums like Julian Tavarez and Julio Lugo hand it over to Detroit (15-21).

Wednesday's starter Clay Buchholz was hit hard, to the tune of ten hits in four innings. He allowed five runs (all earned), one walk and six strikeouts.

After cutting a 4-0 Tigers lead to 5-4, Tavarez gave up three runs in one inning of work. From there, Boston answered with five runs to take a 9-8 lead into the ninth.

Mike Lowell (3 hits, 3 RBIs, 2 runs) and Kevin Youkilis (2 runs, 2 hits, 3 RBIs) provided the heavy lumber as Youk homered twice (Comerica Park is the only place he's done that, now twice) and Lowell had a three-run shot. David Ortiz continued to swing the bat well as he collected two hits.

Placido Polanco was an on-base machine on Wednesday as he had five hits, three RBIs and two runs. Fittingly, after a Lugo error allowed a runner to reach in the ninth, Polanco had a broken-bat bloop that dropped right behind Lugo. It was that type of night for nobody's favorite shortstop.

Jonathan Papelbon (2-1) gave up two hits and two runs (neither earned) to pick up his first blown save and loss of the year.

In the dugout afterwards, Paps took out his anger on an unfortunate Gatorade cooler but most fans probably wish he just beat the hell out of Lugo. Did I mention Julio is useless?

On a brighter note, Josh Beckett (4-2) looked good last night. He went seven innings, allowing six hits, one run with eight strikeouts.

Boston got to supposed Tigers ace Justin Verlander early, scoring three in the third and two in the fifth.

Verlander fell to 1-6 on the year with a disgusting 6.43 ERA, making me glad I didn't have him on any of my fantasy teams. He's lost velocity from his dominant rookie season two years ago and like all Tigers pitchers right now, he's searching for answers.

Youk had a two-run shot off of Verlander while Coco Crisp (3 hits), Jacboy Ellsbury (2 hits), Lowell (2 hits) and Ortiz (2 hits) each had multiple hits.

Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen both pitched scoreless innings which is not something you see everyday.

The Sox travel to Minnesota for a four-game set in the beautiful Metrodome.