Miguel Cabrera ignites rally, but Tigers throw it away

BOSTON — In the ninth inning Sunday, Miguel Cabrera stepped to the plate at Fenway Park, home of the most recent Triple Crown winner.

And Cabrera again produced the kind of big hit that Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski so often did down the stretch in his Triple Crown season of 1967.

With his team down three runs, and two runners aboard, Cabrera greeted closer Jonathan Papelbon by ripping a two-run double high off the centerfield fence. It almost became his fifth ninth-inning homer this season that tied the score or put the Tigers ahead.

Cabrera’s Triple Crown bid continues. But in a different way — playing for a team that finishes in first place — Cabrera’s bid to match Yaz in ’67 suffered another blow Sunday.

Cabrera’s pinch-runner, Don Kelly, scored the tying run in the ninth. But the Red Sox won, 4-3, in the bottom of the inning without making an out or hitting the ball out of the infield. The Tigers fell a season-high seven games behind first-place Chicago, which now visits Comerica Park, and 6 1/2 behind second-place Minnesota.

“We have to stick together,” Cabrera said. “We’ve still got a chance. We’ve got a lot of young guys who have talent and want to play. We need to play hard because it’s hard when key players have injuries. We need to stay focused.”

WHAT HAPPENED: Right-hander Clay Buchholz two-hit the Tigers for eight innings and took a 3-0 lead to the ninth. Miguel Cabrera greeted Jonathan Papelbon with a two-run double, and one out later Jhonny Peralta singled in the tying run. In the bottom of the inning, the Red Sox produced the winning run on an infield single, a walk to a batter attempting to sacrifice, and a throwing error on a bunt by Tigers rookie pitcher Robbie Weinhardt.

CABRERA LIFTED: Cabrera’s double put him at second as the tying run with none out. Leyland made what he called the difficult move of taking out Cabrera for pinch-runner Don Kelly. Leyland said he did so because of Fenway Park, where the close-in leftfield wall allows the leftfielder to play closer to home plate than in other parks. “And if you get (Cabrera) to third with one out, and they hit a normal fly ball, you can’t send him,” Leyland said.

BREAK EVEN: The Tigers fell to .500 (52-52) for the first time since they were 7-7.

COMEBACK NINTHS: Each game in the series featured one. The Red Sox came from down 6-1 to within 6-5 before Jose Valverde finally finished them on Friday. Boston overcame the Tigers’ 4-2 lead in the ninth Saturday to win on David Ortiz’s three-run double. Then the Tigers got out of the 3-0 hole in the ninth on Sunday.

UNREWARDED QUALITY: Sunday marked Justin Verlander’s third straight road start in which the Tigers lost even though he made a quality start (at least six innings, no more than three earned runs).

SAY WHAT? In the Red Sox’s two wins in this series, they scored in a total of five innings. In four of those innings, their leadoff hitter reached on an infield single on which it seemed the Tigers could get an out when the ball left the bat.

HISTORY IN OUR MIDST: In 1993, the Tigers began a mid-June Eastern swing in first place. They went 0-9 on the trip to fall to third place, and they finished a distant third in the AL East. The Tigers began this 1-6 Eastern trip in third place and ended it there. But their deficit on the trip grew from two to seven games.

FRAZIER NOT AFIELD: Outfielder Jeff Frazier started at DH in all three games of this series — the first three games of his big-league career. Leyland said he didn’t want Frazier to worry about playing the difficult Fenway Park outfield in his first days in the big leagues.

NEXT: In the four-game White Sox series at Comerica Park, former Tiger Edwin Jackson is due to make his White Sox debut by starting Wednesday.

Contact JOHN LOWE: 313-223-4053 or jlowe@freepress.com. Read more in his Tigers blog at freep.com/tigersblog.