Rafaela and Duran homer in the 10th inning as Red Sox bounce back and beat Tigers 7-5

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DETROIT (AP) — Ceddanne Rafaela and Jarren Duran homered in the 10th inning as the Boston Red Sox rebounded after squandering a four-run lead and beat the Detroit Tigers 7-5 on Friday night.

The Tigers trailed 4-0 heading in the eighth inning, but rallied and forced extra innings by scoring three times in the eighth and once in the ninth.

But, Rafaela’s 14th homer of the season, off Shelby Miller (6-8), scored Nick Sogard and made it 6-4 with one out in the 10th.

“We grind to the end,” Rafaela said. “That was a great game.”

Rafaela swung and missed at two straight high fastballs. Miller tried a third, and Rafaela made contact at 102 mph.

“He got me with the first two, so I had to make an adjustment,” he said. “I got him with the last one.”

Duran, who doubled in his first two at-bats, hit Tyler Holton’s first pitch 431 feet into the right field stands to make it a three-run game at 7-4.

Chris Martin pitched the 10th for Boston, allowing the automatic runner Riley Greene to score on a groundout before earning his second save.

Connor Wong doubled and homered for the Red Sox (70-65), who moved 2 1/2 games ahead of the Tigers (68-68) for fourth in the American League wild-card race.

Kerry Carpenter hit a three-run homer off Brennan Bernardino in the eighth inning to rally the Tigers and end Detroit’s 21-inning scoreless drought.

“We weren’t getting anything going, so I sent Andy (Ibáñez) up there to try to get something going,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “We wanted to give Riley (Greene) or Carp to give us a chance to get back into the game.”

Zach McKinstry led off the ninth with a single off Kenley Jansen and stole second. Colt Keith struck out before Jake Rogers tied the game with a double to left.

“We knew we had to be aggressive with Zach, especially off Kenley’s leg kick,” Hinch said. “He made it and Jake came through.”

Jansen (4-2) picked up the win.

Red Sox starter Tanner Houck allowed three hits and two walks while striking out six in six shutout innings

Tigers starter Casey Mize allowed four runs on six hits and a walk in six innings. He gave up four doubles and a homer in his first start since a hamstring strain on June 30.

“I was a little sluggish at the start, but I thought I got better,” he said. “I was happy to go six, but the homer at the end was a gut-punch.”

Duran’s early doubles helped Boston to a 2-0 lead. He scored in the first and moved Romy Gonzalez to third in the third, where he scored on Wilyer Abreu’s sacrifice fly.

Houck hit Rogers and Greene in the third, but escaped the inning without harm.

The Red Sox moved out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth when Tyler O’Neill walked, stole second and scored on Wong’s double.

Detroit didn’t get a hit until McKinstry led off the fifth with a single, but he was thrown out trying to take third on Parker Meadows’ base hit to right.

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Wong made it 4-0 with a homer in the sixth.

UP NEXT

The teams play the second game of the series on Saturday — the day the Tigers honor their 1984 World Series champions. Detroit ace LHP Tarik Skubal (15-4, 2.58 ERA) will face RHP Nick Pavetta (5-9, 4.61).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb