The Boston Red Sox traveled to face the Detroit Tigers, starting the first of a three-game series. Boston sought and conquered as they took game one by a 7-2 score.

Joe Kelly took the mound for the Red Sox, while Daniel Norris made his second start as a Tiger, after being traded for David Price. Both teams were lacking offense with Mike Napoli being scratched from the lineup before the game, as he was traded to the Texas Rangers, and Miguel Cabrera is still on the disabled list for the Tigers. 

Boston struck first with two runs in the first inning. Rusney Castillo singled after Brock Holt struck out, and was followed by another single from Xander Bogaerts. David Ortiz flied out to center, but with Castillo's incredible running skills he managed to reach third base. Hanley Ramírez followed Ortiz with a double to left field, that allowed Castillo and Bogaerts to score.

Joe Kelly struck out the first two batters he faced, but allowed back-to-back single to Ian Kinsler and Victor Martinez. However, Kelly eventually struck out the side to end the inning by getting J.D. Martinez to go down swinging. Norris retired the side in order to begin the second inning, while Kelly recorded three-straight strikeouts. That was the second consecutive inning Kelly struck out the side.

Castillo had his second hit of the game in the next inning, and Big Papi hit his 22nd home run of the season bringing in two runs to give Boston a 4-0 lead. Ortiz is now 12 home runs away from 500 career home runs. After Ortiz's homer, Norris gave up back-to-back singles to Hanley and Pablo Sandoval, but was able to escape a two-out jam. The Red Sox attacked again in the next inning, when Norris gave up again back-to-back singles once again, this time to Jackie Bradley Jr. and Brock Holt, that ended up knocking him out of the game. Buck Farmer took over for Norris, but Castillo boosted Boston's lead to 5-0 with a force out. 

Kelly allowed his only two runs of the game in the next inning when Kinsler singled to begin the fourth and J.D. Martínez hit his 30th home run of the year. The score remained the same until the sixth inning when Bradley Jr. and Castillo got on base and Bogaerts scored them on a double to give Boston a 7-2 lead.

Detroit had a momentum going on in the ninth inning when Justin Masterson loaded the bases, but Koji Uehara recorded the final two outs of the game. The closer was injured by a ground ball from Kinsler that hit him in the left wrist, and will result in an X-ray post game.

"Seeing Koji Uehara get hit in the wrist was deflating for us as a team," Joe Kelly said after the game.

Boston is now 12 games below .500 and 13 behind the first place New York Yankees in the AL East. The Red Sox aren't doing any better in the Wild Card race as they are still 9.5 games out.