Red Sox vs. Tigers Series Recap:

The Red Sox won/lost the series in Detroit 2-1. The offense started to pick up as the series went on and the pitching stayed on track.

Starters:

Rich Hill delivers a pitch during the Red Sox game on Tuesday afternoon. (Via Getty Images)

Micheal Wacha opened the series and his Red Sox career going 4.1 IP giving up 1ER. Wacha pitched fairly well as his trouble inning was the first where he gave up a single and walked two but minimized the damage to only one run off a Miguel Cabrera sac-fly. Rich Hill took the mound in game two also going 4.1 innings but gave up 3 ER. Hill pitched better than the box score indicated in my opinion most of the contact on him was soft and he was mostly just unlucky. Nate Eovaldi took the mound to close out the series on a rainy day in Detroit going 5 IP giving up 2 ER. Solid stuff from Nate as giving up home runs have been Nate’s biggest problem so far this season as he gave up two more. 

Bullpen:

Kevin Plawecki (left) daps up Garrett Whitlock (right) after his impressive 4 inning performance on Tuesday. (Via. Getty Images)

The bullpen was solid again for the most part, other than Ryan Braiser giving up a 2-run homerun to Javy Baez there wasn’t much to complain about. Garrett Whitlock was very good as he worked 4 innings to close out game 2 in impressive fashion.  Barnes was solid in his two outings not giving up any earned runs in his two outings. Austin Davis was rocky in his two outings giving up earned runs in both of his outings including a 2-run home run to Spencer Torkelson. Kutter Crawford was also not very good in the last game of the series as he gave up 3 ER in .2 of an inning. While Diekman and Robles combined to close out the last game giving up no runs over the last two innings.

Offense:

Kiké Hernandez takes a ride in the Red Sox home run cart after launching a solo shot to tie the game in the third inning on Wednesday.

The offense progressively started to heat up as the series progressed. In game one the Sox didn’t have a base runner until the 5th inning when JD Martinez hit a solo homerun to tie the game at one. Game two the offense started off slow yet again but turned it on in the sixth inning as Kiké Hernandez, Rafael Devers, and JD Martinez all picked up RBIs to tie the game. In the eighth inning Devers picked up another RBI to give the Sox the lead and Christian Arroyo added an insurance run with an RBI single himself. In game three the Sox offense was quiet until the third inning when Kiké hit a solo shot to tie the game. The rest of the offense followed later in the game with Alex Verdugo, Jackie Bradely Jr. (3 RBI), Kiké (again), Devers, and Trevor Story Christian Vázquez all picking up RBI’s. 

Overall the series was okay for the Sox as it is still early in the season taking two out of three from Detroit is solid. Although a sweep would have been better with the offense struggling early in the season I will take winning the series. The bullpen at times gave me some worries with Braiser, Davis, and Crawford struggling but I do not expect them to be key arms in the bullpen going further. As Josh Taylor is on the verge of coming back  and Whitlock, Barnes, Diekman and Robles are the key arms to worry about. On the starters end I thought they were solid and doing just about what they are asked to do, but I would eventually like to see starters going deeper into the games.

Finally the Red Sox will return home to host their home opener Friday afternoon where they welcome the twins for a four game series. Which includes marathon Monday where the team gets to wear their city connect uniforms once again.