BOSTON _ A night in Fenway Park. Early June. The Detroit Tigers hold a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Right-hander Alex Wilson is pitching.
If you have been following this baseball team for any period of time, you could probably guess what happened next.
A bloop base hit into right field. An errant pickoff throw. A hard hit base hit to right field to tie the game. And then, two batters later, the knockout punch.
Jackie Bradley Jr. hung the loss on Wilson, hitting a two-run home run into the right-field seats for another big Boston home run in the eighth inning. The Tigers lost, 5-3. They are two games under .500.
The eighth-inning meltdown spoiled Jordan Zimmermann's start and nullified an otherwise competitive game from the Tigers.
Zimmermann _ armed with a solid-enough slider _ threw six innings, allowing two runs on six hits. He struck out three and walked three and recorded his third quality start in his last four outings.
In the second inning, the veteran righty took a hard come-backer in the right hip off the bat of Xander Bogaerts at 111.3 mph He was hunched over but stayed in the game.
Friended by a pair of groundball double plays, Zimmermann was rarely in risk of losing control of the game. He ended his day with a swinging strikeout of Bradley in the sixth inning, pumping his glove.
Zimmermann was aided early by Nick Castellanos, who opened the scoring with a solo shot over the Red Sox bullpen in right field in the first inning. It was Castellanos' second home run in as many games.
Later in the inning, J.D. Martinez drove in Victor Martinez with an RBI single. On the play, Martinez scored from second base. Mikie Mahtook _ who could start in all three games this weekend as the Tigers face a trio of lefty starters _ hit his fourth home run of the season, over the Green Monster in left-center field, to put the Tigers up three runs.
But Zimmermann gave two back in the bottom half of the inning, allowing a solo home run to Mitch Moreland and an RBI single to Bradley.
The score would remain the same from there, with the teams exchanging zeroes in each of the next three innings, until Bogaerts reached on that bloop base hit in the eighth inning.
On the play, J.D. Martinez just could not make up enough ground to come in from right field. Shortly thereafter, Wilson threw a ball behind Miguel Cabrera at first base, moving Bogaerts into scoring position. He would tie the game on a Moreland double.
With left-hander Daniel Stumpf warming in the Tigers bullpen, Bradley then buried them.
The Tigers were no match for closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning. He threw a perfect frame.
