Detroit 7
Boston 2

You knew the Tigers wouldn’t lose every game. Wednesday night their offense woke up with a little help from Jon Lester and the Red Sox bullpen. Lester was somewhere between mediocre and awful, with the usual problem: fastball command. None of his 2008 starts have been particularly encouraging, but last night’s 4 BB, 0 K performance was his worst yet. He was lucky in the early innings, the Tigers swung at bad pitches and made bad contact. That could have been a three inning, seven run night pretty easily, then we’d all be poopin’ our pants. To date he’s walked ten in sixteen innings while striking out seven. Color me extremely worried.

Bonderman wasn’t his best, but was unlucky to give up the runs he did in the second. The suddenly error prone Placido Polanco’s botched double play ball should have had him out of the inning before the bases loaded walk to Ellsbury. The four double plays hit into by the Red Sox quickly erased all threats. The maligned Tigers’ pen bested the vaunted Red Sox for the final four innings.

I never thought I’d be so happy to see Mike Timlin return from the disabled list. His extended spring training has allowed the Sox to sort out the mess that is their middle relief, and the answer is: it’s bad. The three candidates to get booted out of town Friday pitched last night in a do-or-die bullpen battle royale, and the loser was Bryan Corey. He gave up two runs on two hits and a walk, and recorded one out. That decision looks pretty cut-and-dry. It sucks that one night should have such a huge impact on his career, but that’s the unfortunate truth. Aardsma will stick. The Bryan Corey Era is over. Hopefully Timlin can rescue a unit that has been utterly craptastic so far.

Game 10 Notes

• There’s one thing I’d like to see from the Red Sox on Thursday, and that’s a 2-4 night from David Ortiz. Even if they lose, getting Ortiz going is vital. If it was anyone else, I’d write it off as a bad stretch, but we haven’t seen a slump like this from Ortiz since August of 2004. He’ll face Nate Robertson, whom he is 3-19 against.
• Coco Crisp will likely get a start, as he’s faced Robertson 38 times with reasonable success (.853 OPS).
• Tim Wakefield will go for the Sox. Watch out for Magglio, who is 15-33 with a 1.288 OPS against the knuckler.
• Mike Lowell is day-to-day, expect to see Casey at first for Thursday and possibly the weekend.