Motown take 2 of 3 in Beantown

9/8 - GAME 1 - Fenway Park
Jack Morris vs Roger Clemens
Red Sox 3, Tigers 2
Both hurlers were spot on.  "The Rocket" had himself a shutout until the top of the 9th when the Tigers bats finally came alive.  Kirk Gibson, who's not a stranger to big 9th inning homers slammed a lead off shot to make it 3-1.  Lou Whitaker hit a mile high pop up in front of home plate that backstop Sammy White dropped, which allowed Whitaker to cruise into second.  Roger Clemens threw a perfect splitter to Harvey Kuenn for the strikeout, but the ball got past White and Whitaker strolled over to third.  The turning point of the game was Al Kaline's at bat.  Clemens was visibly rattled by the events of the inning and looked ready to crack.  He was given one more batter (Kaline) and with one swing almost gave away the ball game.  Clemens tried to overpower Kaline, who turned on the fastball and hit a blast to the deepest part of the park (420).  Dom DiMaggio tracked it down for the second out of the inning as Whitaker easily scored to make it 3-2.  With Norm Cash due up Clemens was lifted for lefty Sparky Lyle who fanned Detroit's lefty hitting first baseman to end the contest.  Boston scored all 3 of their runs in the 4th thanks to two passed balls charged to Lance Parrish and a two run double by Jim Rice.

9/9 - GAME 2
Denny McLain vs Dennis Eckersley
Tigers 16, Red Sox 5
The "Eck" came into the game sporting a 5-0 record and a tidy ERA.  He left the game a beaten victim, who was sent to the showers before registering 3 outs in the top of the first.  Detroit's 7 run barrage saw 12 hitters come to the plate.  Eckersley allowed lead off singles to Whitaker and Kuenn then walked the next 3.  Kirk Gibson's 2 run double made it 4-0 and Bill Freehan's 3 run homer finished off Eckersley's day.  Bruce Hurst came in from the pen in an uncomfortable role as long reliever and went 3 2/3 and gave up just 1 run.  In the meantime the Bosox battled back with 2 in the 4th and 3 in the 6th off of McLain to make it an 8-5 ball game.  Bob Stanley replace Hurst and until the 8th he was doing fine.  Detroit bulldozed Stanley for 8 runs over the final 2 innings to seal the deal in a game where they scored 16 runs on 20 hits.  Kirk Gibson and George Kell both had 5 RBI days.  Havey Kuenn went 4 for 5.  Norm Cash was the only Tiger regular w/out a hit.

9/10 - GAME 3
Jim Bunning vs Mel Parnell
Tigers 4, Red Sox 3
Jim Bunning and his national debt-like ERA was on a tight leash in a must win game for both teams who are trying to keep pace with the Evil Empire.  Mel Parnell got himself into a bit of a bind in the top of the second, when 3 of the first 4 batters he faced singled to load the bases.  An error by Johnny Pesky at short on Alan Trammell's sinking liner allowed George Kell to score.  Kirk Gibson would score on Ron LeFlore's grounder to second.  Detroit carried that 2-0 lead into the 4th when Bunning ran into trouble and got the quick hook.  With runners on the corners and nobody out the "splendid splinter", Ted Williams, lined a single to right to score Jim Rice.  Yaz would score three batters later on a groundout by Goodman, but Mark "the Bird" Fidrych would minimized the damage to two runs and go on to pitch almost 3 scoreless innings of long relief.  Detroit would regain their lead in the 5th when Ray Boone tripled home Al Kaline and George Kell, who went 3 for 4 on the day, singled home Boone.  Hank Aguirre and Mike Henneman would take over for "the bird" and keep the status quo until the bottom of the 9th when they handed the ball off to closer Willie Hernandez.  Pesky and Boggs both grounded out and Hernandez was 1 out away from putting the game away.  Jim Rice stepped to the plate and hit one right over the green monstah to make it a 1 run game.  Yaz followed and all of a sudden the tension began to mount on both pitcher and hitter.  Hernandez got the upper hand and played Yaz like a fiddle by changing speeds and striking him out with a slider.  Detroit took 2 of 3 in this all important AL East matchup.