BOSTON --
“Just attacking early, getting in the zone early,” Boyd said. “It’s nice when teams swing early at you. It helps it out, too.”\n\nBoyd started off the game with a 10-pitch first inning and needed just four pitches to retire the side in the second. Efficient defense also helped stretch his afternoon, as the Tigers turned three double plays.\n\n“Boyd did a really nice job using his pitches, his sinker, his slider, got some ground balls, and we turned probably three or four of them,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “Two outs with one pitch is a good thing.\n\nBoyd didn’t want to exit the game. In fact, Gardenhire had planned for him to start the eighth inning until the seventh went longer than the manager preferred for him to stay in.
“Throwing the ball over and working the counts and not having too many high-number innings with pitches, that always keeps him in the game,” Gardenhire said. “This is a dangerous team over there. Those guys \\[the Red Sox\\] can really hit. He did a real nice job of changing it up and using his spinners and changeup. It was a good performance by him.\n\nThe Red Sox, riding a three-game sweep of the first-place Rays, anticipated challenging at-bats against Boyd.
Boyd got support when it mattered -- and plenty from
Tied at 3 in the eighth,