DETROIT — Sonny Gray pitched five innings in his return from injury and the Boston Red Sox finished a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers with a 4-0 win on Wednesday night.
Gray (3-1) was making his first start since facing the Tigers on April 20 at Fenway Park — a game he left after 2 2/3 innings because of a strained hamstring. He gave up four hits and two walks while striking out two on Wednesday.
Jack Flaherty (0-3) allowed four runs — two earned — on three hits and a walk in five innings. He struck out 10.
Flaherty struck out the first five batters he faced but gave up two runs in each of the next two innings.
Marcelo Mayer led off the third with an infield single off Colt Keith’s glove at third base and Flaherty hit Carlos Narváez with a pitch. Caleb Durbin made it 1-0 with an RBI double and Willson Contreras added a sacrifice fly.
Masataka Yoshida singled and Ceddanne Rafaela walked in the fourth. After a strikeout, Narváez hit a grounder to third that went under Keith’s glove and down the left-field line, and two runners scored.
The Red Sox loaded the bases on three walks with one out in the seventh, bringing Brant Hurter out of the bullpen. He struck out Wilyer Abreu and got Trevor Story to ground out.
Detroit played without manager A.J. Hinch, who was suspended one game for Tuesday’s bench-clearing incident against the Red Sox. Tigers starter Framber Valdez was originally suspended six games for hitting Story, but it was dropped to five games when he didn’t appeal.
Up next
Red Sox: Return to Fenway Park for a series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Left-hander Jake Bennett (1-0, 1.80 ERA) is scheduled to start Thursday night. The Rays haven’t announced their pitcher.
Tigers: Off Thursday before flying to Kansas City for a three-game series. Right-hander Keider Montero (2-2, 3.48) will start the opener against left-hander Kris Bubic (3-1, 3.32).
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less