Detroit Tigers 0 Boston Red Sox 5 (04/08/08)
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It was a good day for the Boston Red Sox. They received their World Series rings, welcomed Bill Buckner back to Fenway Park to throw out the first pitch in an emotional return, and they shut out the still-winless Detroit Tigers, 5-0 in their home opener.
| W: | Daisuke Matsuzaka | (2-0, 1.47) |
| L: | Kenny Rogers | (0-2, 3.37) |
| S: | N/A | N/A |
Daisuke Matsuzaka (2-0) got the win for the Sox, throwing 6 2/3 shutout innings, striking out 7 while walking 4. Not quite as sharp as he was in his last outing, Matsuzaka threw 108 pitches before being relieved by Manny Delcarmen. Still, he allowed only four hits and made two great defensive plays to boot. Kenny Rogers (0-2) labored through 4 2/3 innings, throwing 107 (!) pitches in that span, and only 56 of them for strikes.
Perhaps the most exciting play of the game was a long fly ball off the bat of Manny Ramirez in the third. The ball bounced around in the corner in deep center field, and Manny booked around for a triple before Placido Polanco's cut-off throw was wide and into the Tigers dugout, automatically awarding home plate to Ramirez. The throw was Polanco's first error since July of 2006, which is ridiculous.
The Tigers bats continued to be ice cold, with Edgar Renteria, Ivan Rodriguez, and Carlos Guillen all going 0-4. The best day at the plate for Detroit was had by designated hitter Gary Sheffield, who went 2-4, but was almost cut down at first on a shallow fly to right by a sprinting Dustin Pedroia. As for the Red Sox lineup, Kevin Youkilis continued his hot start, going 3-3 with a walk, 2 RBI and a run scored. J.D. Drew also walked with the bases loaded to score a run.
Top Performers By WPA
- Boston: Kevin Youkilis (+.110), Daisuke Matsuzaka (+.326)
- Detroit: Miguel Cabrera (+.050), Aquilino Lopez (+.013)
Coming up next: Young Boston southpaw Jon Lester faces off against Detroit's Jeremy Bonderman tomorrow in game two of this three-game set, at 7:05 EDT.
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