Red Sox win 5-3 behind Garrett Whitlock's four scoreless innings and Rafael Devers' 2 runs & 2 RBI's

Rafael Devers (Photo from MLB.com video; https://www.mlb.com/gameday/red-sox-vs-tigers/2022/04/12/662862#game_state=final,game_tab=videos,game=662862

The Boston Red Sox Major League Baseball team came back from a 3-0 deficit to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park in Detroit, to win 5-3 on Tuesday afternoon.

Garrett Whitlock was the second relief pitcher for Boston as he pitched the final four innings (of a nine inning game) and picked up the win. The Tigers did not score in any of those frames.

Kike Hernandez and Rafael Devers each scored two runs and Kevin Plawecki scored one run for the Red Sox.

Boston scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game at three and then scored two more runs in the top of the eighth.

Detroit scored three runs in the bottom of the third.

Spencer Torkelson got his first major league hit in a regular season game (which was a double) on a popup in about the middle of the outfield in right-center field, advanced to third on Dustin Garneau’s single which landed in shallow center field and scored on Robbie Grossman’s RBI groundout to third.

Garneau advanced to second on Grossman’s groundout and scored from second on Jonathan Schoop’s popup RBI single near the right field line.

Schoop then scored all the way from first base on Javier Baez’s hard hit RBI double to left field which went all the way to the warning track.

The Tigers did not score again.

Kevin Plawecki got things rolling for the Red Sox offense to lead off the sixth with a single, followed by a Jonathan Arauz sacrifice bunt and Kike Hernandez got his first hit of the regular season (an RBI double) down the right field line as Plawecki scored and Boston trailed by a score of 3-1 at that point.

Rafael Devers hit a single to shallow center field scoring Hernandez and Detroit’s starting pitcher got removed from the game after that.

During the next plate appearance, Devers advanced to second on a wild pitch by the Tigers’ Jacob Barnes and one batter later J.D. Martinez hit a double down the right field line (scoring Devers) which hit the white chalk of the fair-foul line. After 5 ½ innings the score was tied at three.

In the top of the eighth, Alex Lange pitched for Detroit and was almost completely worthless.

He walked Boston’s Kike Hernandez, allowed a wild pitch which allowed Hernandez to go to second and gave up a single to Rafael Devers (scoring Hernandez) while the Tigers’ center fielder Akil Baddoo committed an error by not being able to handle the baseball, allowing Devers to go to second on the play.

Lange got Xander Bogaerts to ground out to him and then he hit J.D. Martinez with a pitch.

The Tigers’ Will Vest came in to pitch. He struck out Bobby Dalbec on three pitches but gave up an RBI single to Christian Arroyo in a seven-pitch at-bat, scoring Devers.

Boston’s Garrett Whitlock pitched outstanding to get the win only allowing Detroit’s Jeimer Candelario to reach first base on a walk. He pitched four innings, no runs and no hits, two strikeouts and five flyouts.

The Red Sox’s starting pitcher Rich Hill pitched 4 1/3 innings, he gave up three runs, five hits, one walk and struck out four.

Hirokazu Sawamura came in to pitch in relief for Hill in the fifth inning with one out and got a crazy double play to end the inning in which third baseman Rafael Devers caught a pop up in foul territory on the third base side and threw to first baseman Bobby Dalbec to double off the Tigers’ Robbie Grossman.

Detroit’s starting pitcher Tyler Alexander pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs, five hits, no walks and four strikeouts.

Jacob Barnes, the first reliever for the Tigers, pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up a hit.

After him, Joe Jimenez pitched one inning for Detroit and had one walk and one strikeout.

Alex Lange then pitched 1/3 of an inning for the Tigers and gave up two runs, one hit, one hit batsmen and one walk and took the loss.

Detroit’s Will Vest pitched 2/3 of an inning and had one strikeout and gave up one hit.

The Tigers’ Jason Foley pitched one inning and gave up a hit.

Boston (2-3) will look to win a game on back-to-back days for the first time during the regular season on Wednesday afternoon.

Detroit (2-3) hopes to win on Wednesday and avoid losing on back-to-back days for the second time this season.

Both teams look to win a series for the first time in the regular season on Wednesday.