Tigers 10, Red Sox 0
Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera turned the second game of the season into a home run derby, each going yard twice as host Detroit improved to 2-0 to begin the 2012 schedule.
Cabrera, the reigning American League batting champ, set the tone with a towering two-run shot to right center in the bottom of the first. Fielder hit his first home run as a Tiger on a solo effort to lead off the bottom of the fourth. The pair posted back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-0 lead and chase Boston starter Josh Beckett.
The Tigers have won three straight meetings with the Red Sox, after losing seven in a row to Boston spanning the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Detroit finished with 12 hits, and scored in double figures for the third time in its last six regular-season contests.
Beckett (0-1), who was slowed by a sore thumb this spring, allowed seven runs on seven hits – five of those home runs – and struck out three before getting the hook. Boston falls to 0-2, stirring memories of last year’s 0-6 start.
Duane Below pitched 2 1/3 solid innings in place of Tigers starter Doug Fister, who was pulled with an apparent abdominal injury after just 3 2/3 innings. Below (1-0) gave up one hit and sat down two batters in his first career win.
Boston’s No.1 and 2 hitters, Jacoby Ellsbury and Dustin Pedroia, combined to go 0-for-6 with a walk. The duo is 1-for-14 through the first two games of the season.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Reliever Octavio Dotel made his Detroit debut. He’s pitched for a record 13 different clubs. … The last time Detroit’s No. 3 and 4 hitters hit two HRs in the same game was July 4, 1968. … Catcher Alex Avila hit a two-run HR in the fourth. …