And the un-sung hero award goes to… Julian Tavarez.
Tavarez who was not even supposed to be the fifth starter on this team has provided the Boston Red Sox with what any skipper would want out of his fifth starter: long outings and the ability to keep his team in the game.
Tavarez did just that picking up the win pitching 7 innings, striking out 3, walking 4 batters, giving up 4 hits, and allowing 1 earned run for a 2-1 Red Sox win over the Detroit Tigers (24-15) in the first game of the double header.
Boston’s un-sung hero has now had three starts squashed due to rain outs but has continued to battle over the course of the season. Tavarez now posts a 2-4 record and an ERA of 5.59.
Not only was his pitching performance great in terms of numbers, but he also gave the bullpen a break going 7 strong innings with another game yet to be played.
The loser was Tigers’ pitcher Zach Miner (0-1) who only gave up 2 runs, 1 earned, in 5.1 innings pitched with 3 strikeouts, 1 walk, and 6 hits given up.
Manny Ramirez singled home Coco Crisp in the bottom of the first making the score 1-0. Crisp, earlier in the inning, reached based on a single to left field, and was pushed to third base on a ground out by David Ortiz.
Kevin Youkilis singled home Julio Lugo from second which helped the Sox scratch together one more run in the bottom of the third making it 2-0.
The lone run for the Tigers came in the top of the fifth but after that the BoSox dominated from the hill.
Tavarez left the eighth and ninth innings up to Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon and they honored the un-sung hero with a hold and a save.
Okajima pitched a 1-2-3 top of the eighth while Papelbon struck out his first two batters he faced in Carlos Guillen and Ivan Rodriguez and then got Sean Casey to groundout to Lugo to pick up the save.
The Boston Red Sox look to capture the sweep of the double-header against the Detroit Tigers by sending ace pitcher Curt Schilling to the mound against Chad Durbin.
