Tigers earned a doubleheader split with Boston yesterday

Rain washed away Saturday's game. But unlike the last couple rainouts over the last couple weeks, Detroit could make up this game immediately.

Andy Oliver made his season debut in the first game of the day-night doubleheader. He'd been brought up specifically to pitch the Saturday game, with Phil Coke on the DL with his ankle injury. Oliver was in trouble each of the first 3 innings but managed to only be down 3-0. He allowed a double, hit a batter, walked a batter, and allowed 4(!) stolen bases, all without a throw from Alex Avila, in the first but miraculously gave up only 1 run.

Oliver settled down to go 6 innings, allowing the three runs on 5 hits. Andy Dirks hit his 2nd homer of the season and Brennan Boesch his 4th. Jhonny Peralta tied the game with a single.

But David Ortiz hit a pinch hit home run off of Jose Valverde in the top of the 9th to win it for the Red Sox 4-3. Valverde fell to 2-2 on the season. It was Ortiz's 1st pinch hit home run since 2003. As it turns out Valverde had faced Ortiz only once before, and gave up a grand slam last season. Off the top of my head I think that was the terrible game where Valverde needed around 50 or so pitches to get out of the 9th inning, and almost blew a huge lead before barely holding on. He was never the same for the rest of the season, probably because of that extreme pitch count.

In the nightcap Justin Verlander returned to his dominant form. He pitched 7.23 shutout innings. He threw a career high 132 pitches. That was the highest pitch count for a Tigers starter since 1996. But Verlander's velocity kept increasing as the game got later, so he obviously had his groove last night. He improved to 5-3 on the season.

Brennan Boesch and Miguel Cabrera had back-to-back RBI doubles in the first inning. Don Kelly added an insurance RBI single in the 8th. Joaquin Benoit got the final out of the 8th with 2 runners on. Jose Valverde retired the side in the 9th for his 12th save. He earned some redemption by retiring David Ortiz on a grounder to first to end the game. The final was 3-0.

With the split Detroit's record is even at 26-26. They salvaged the final game out of their 6 season meetings with the Red Sox. If they meet again in 2011 it will be in the playoffs.