Career day for Victorino
Boston’s Shane Victorino followed through on this single that drove in two runs in the fourth inning. Victorino tied a career high with four hits, including a homer, in the Red Sox’s win over Detroit.
DETROIT >> Shane Victorino was already having quite a night at the plate when he became a bit greedy in right field.
He picked up Miguel Cabrera’s clean single and tried to throw the Detroit slugger out at first. Cabrera made it to the bag in time — but on this night, it seemed Victorino was capable of anything.
“He looked at me. I said, ‘Yeah, you better run,’ ” Victorino said. “We have kind of like a friendship, a camaraderie. He’s a great player.”
Victorino upstaged Cabrera a bit Friday night, hitting a homer and three singles to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 10-6 win over the Tigers. Victorino matched a career high with five RBIs.
“I didn’t even know what my career high was,” Victorino said. “It’s great. Any time you get four hits and five RBIs — for a guy like me — you always get excited for it.”
Cabrera hit a three-run homer for Detroit, which nearly rallied from a 6-1 deficit but couldn’t come through against the Boston bullpen. Jon Lester (7-4) allowed five runs and nine hits in 52⁄3 innings, but he won for the first time in seven starts.
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The Red Sox lost Thursday night in the ninth inning, but their bullpen held the Tigers to one run Friday.
The Red Sox now lead Baltimore by two games atop the AL East. Cleveland trimmed Detroit’s AL Central lead to three.
It was Victorino’s first four-hit game since 2011. He opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first, although the Tigers tied it in the second on Brayan Pena’s RBI single.
Victorino hit a two-run single in the fourth and a run-scoring single in the sixth.
On Cabrera’s third hit — a single to right in the seventh — Victorino tried to throw him out at first from the outfield. Cabrera beat the throw and appeared to laugh and yell something in Victorino’s direction.
Victorino nearly had a fifth hit in the eighth. With the bases loaded and one out, Jhonny Peralta fielded his slow chopper and tried unsuccessfully to get a force at home. Boston took an 8-5 lead on the play, but it was ruled a fielder’s choice and not a hit.
That was the first of two close plays at the plate that went Boston’s way in the eighth. The second came when Al Alburquerque threw a wild pitch and came home to cover the plate. Pena retrieved the ball, but Stephen Drew appeared to get his arm under Alburquerque’s tag attempt, and the Red Sox took a 9-5 lead.
