Home cookin', sure sounds good, to a country boy like me

To say the Boston Red Sox limped home after losing all six games on their road trip (to Tampa Bay and New York) would be an insult to cripples and drunks everywhere.

The Sox (63-48) can't hit and the bullpen is falling apart but all those troubles were forgotten for an evening as they beat Detroit (59-52), 6-5 last night at Fenway in the start of a four-game series.

The Yankees lost to the Blue Jays last night and the Rangers were idle so Boston moved up to 5.5 games behind New York in the AL East and a half game up in the Wild Card.

It only took two innings for Boston to double its output from the last three games combined against the Yankees.

Dustin Pedroia hit a two-run homer in the first off Tigers All-Star Edwin Jackson. In the second, Nick Green hit a solo shot and David Ortiz knocked in Jacoby Ellsbury (2 hits, 2 runs) with an RBI single.

Brad Penny gave his usual six inning performance and it was better than most of his recent outings: six innings, three earned runs on six hits, one walk and two strikeouts.

Magglio Ordonez (3 hits) tripled home Miguel Cabrera in the fourth and Brandon Inge scored Ordonez with a single.

An inning later, Detroit cut it to 4-3 when Marcus Thames knocked in Curtis Granderson with a sacrifice fly.

Jason Bay hit a solo homer in the fifth that just stayed fair down the line in left.

What would a Red Sox game be without the bullpen giving up a lead? Manny Delcarmen did the honors last night in the seventh. Placido Polanco (3 hits) had an RBI single and Marcus Thames' RBI double tied the game at five.

Nick Green, who has been an automatic out for the last month and a half, knocked in the winning run (J.D. Drew) with a sacrifice fly in the seventh.

Jonathan Papelbon came on in the eighth with runners on second and third, two outs and Granderson at the plate. Papelbon got him to pop out to catcher Victor Martinez and then he recorded a 1-2-3 ninth for his 28th save of the season.

23-year-old rookie Junichi Tazawa gets his first MLB start tonight against Tigers rookie Rick Porcello.