Friday, May 9
DETROIT — Josh Beckett got eight strikeouts, including the 1,000th of his career and Kevin Youkilis hit another home run at spacious Comerica Park to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 5-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday night.

Beckett (4-2) gave up six hits and a run in seven innings and Youkilis hit his third home run in two games, giving him eight in Detroit. He hasn't hit more than two outside Fenway Park.

The Red Sox took three of four in the series from the Tigers and have won six of their past seven, while Detroit has lost six of seven.

Justin Verlander (1-6) gave up five runs on nine hits in six innings. He struck out five, but allowed Jason Varitek's two-run single and Jacoby Ellsbury's sacrifice fly in the second inning, as well as Youkilis' two-run drive in the fifth.

Ramon Santiago hit a run-scoring single in the fourth. Curtis Granderson struck out four times and has seven whiffs in his past 10 at-bats for Detroit.

Ellsbury and Coco Crisp, who had been platooning in the outfield for the Red Sox, combined for five of Boston's 13 total hits. Crisp started in center, while Ellsbury got the nod in left in place of Manny Ramirez.

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Boston's Craig Hansen and Manny Delcarmen combined for two innings of shutout relief. Delcarmen had been struggling of late, while Hansen is a recent call-up from AAA.

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