Tigers 10, Red Sox 9.
Jonathan Papelbon, past perfect, was saddled with a loss and his first blown save since the rakes first came out last autumn.
Two home runs by Kevin Youkilis, a tying three-run homer by Mike Lowell, and a go-ahead pinch single in the eighth by Dustin Pedroia? All for naught. Not to mention the electrifying, tag-team strike-'im-out, throw-'im-out double play turned by Hideki Okajima and Jason Varitek, Okajima's whiff of Gary Sheffield looking like a game-breaker.
"It would have been a great comeback," Sox manager Terry Francona said, perhaps as much to himself as those gathered in his office after the game.
Boston's five-game winning streak? See ya. Detroit's five-game losing streak? Semi-miraculously over; the Tigers hadn't won a game they'd trailed after eight in 19 previous tries.
The Sox started this night on the seat of their pants, the position Clay Buchholz found himself when he slipped on wet grass while trying to guide Sheffield's dribbler foul, the ball instead nicking his left foot for a gift hit.
And that's how they ended it, staggered by a confluence of nubbers and one very big flub by Lugo, whose fielding mistakes are mounting at a rate (10 in 36 games, a 45-error pace) that will have Sox fans pining for the days of that 30-E man, Edgar Renteria.
"There's a long season to go," said Papelbon, who kicked a Gatorade cooler, then pushed another one over in the dugout after the game. "It's a heavyweight title fight. One little jab ain't going to knock you out."
No, but it can momentarily take your breath away. Three innings into this one, the Sox were down, 4-0, the Tigers staying back on Buchholz's offspeed pitches and using the middle of the field to do their damage. Buchholz was gone after four, his shortest start since the Yankees roughed him up for seven runs in 3 2/3 innings April 16.
It was 8-4 after five, by which time the Tigers already had 14 hits, including four off Julian "Rip Van" Tavarez, who hadn't pitched in 30 years - 13 days, actually, but it felt like 30 years, judging by the results, Tavarez getting touched for three runs in the fifth.
The Tigers finished with 18 hits, all but two singles.
