G42: Red Sox 1, Tigers 0

Tigers  - 000 000 000 - 0  5  1
Red Sox - 000 000 01x - 1  4  0

Jarrod Saltalamacchia doubled home Carl Crawford, who had walked with two out in the bottom of the eighth. Then Jonathan Papelbon, after giving up a leadoff double in the ninth to Victor Martinez, got the next three batters, saving the game by striking out both Alex Avila and Ryan Raburn.

Buchholz (7-4-0-1-7, a career-high 127) dueled Coke (7-3-0-1-4, 78) in a foggy drizzle for seven innings. Daniel Bard threw one pitch in the top of the eighth, before the hard rain forced the umpires to call for the tarp. Twenty-six minutes later, Bard resumed his work, setting Detroit's 2-3-4 hitters down in order.

In the home eighth, Ryan Perry retired the Jed Lowrie and Mike Cameron. Jim Leyland then brought in lefty Daniel Schlereth to face Crawford. Schlereth walked Crawford on a full-count pitch out came Leyland again. Schlereth went to hand him the ball and walk off the mound, but Leyland only wanted to talk. Shoulda pulled him. Salty whacked a 2-1 pitch into the left-center field gap, and Crawford scored easily.

It was a rough night for the Boston bats before that. Dustin Pedroia singled with one out in the first and Adrian Gonzalez ended the inning with a 463 double play. Kevin Youkilis singled to start the second, but David Ortiz lined to first for an unassisted DP. Pedroia reached on an infield error in the third, but AG again ended the inning, this time with a 163 DP.

Play resumed, 9:58 PM
Rain delay, 9:32 PM: One pitch into the top of the 8th.

Phil Coke/ Clay Buchholz

Victor Martinez returns to Fenway:

I don't know how [Red Sox fans] are going to look at it. I didn't want to go away. But at the same time, they [Red Sox front office] really didn't make me an offer. I know I didn't do anything wrong, or bad. Hopefully, it will be nice. Either way, I have nothing but great things to say about the city and the fans. It was all good there. The experience was something else. It was just the way we were treated — me, and my family. First class. Everything. The fans, the Red Sox organization. I mean, everything.

I cannot imagine the response will be anything less than completely positive. (Francona has kept a picture of himself with Martinez's 6-year-old son, Victor Jose, on his office wall.)

Buchholz had his best outing of the year last Friday (7-5-2-1-7,110 against the Yankees). He has a 1.93 ERA in three May starts and his season ERA is under four for the first time: 3.94.

Of Coke's nine appearances this year, the last seven have been starts (4.35 ERA).

Michael Bowden's numbers out of the Pawtucket bullpen: 14 games, 22.2 innings, 15 hits, 4 walks, 28 strikeouts, 1.59 ERA. ... Dan Wheeler (strained left calf muscle) is expected to rejoin the team on Friday. ... Bobby Jenks (biceps tendinitis) started a throwing program yesterday and will likely have a minor league rehab assignment before he returns.

The principal reason for David Ortiz's success at the plate this year? "Stay away from bad pitches." It's not very earth-shattering, but this is a nice little article anyway. I like Vega referring to Tiz as a "glue guy".

And: I assume you all heard about Vin Mazzaro's historic pitching line for Kansas City on Monday night: 2.1-11-14-3-2, 77. He came in from the pen to get out of a third inning jam, then allowed 10 runs in the fourth, and was sent back out (!) and faced five more batters in the fifth! (Joe Posnanski called it "the worst pitching performance in baseball history".)

AL East: Yankees/Orioles and Rays/Blue Jays at 7 PM.