truebluefan

Sit long enough by the waterfront here and you'll see the tide turn.

At Fenway Park, however, the Tigers turned their own tide in minutes.

Toting a five-game losing streak to town, they scored three times off Josh Beckett in the first inning Monday night, eventually built a five-run lead and weathered a weird eighth inning -- weird for the Red Sox, that is -- en route to a 7-4 victory.

The victory ended what had been the Tigers' longest losing streak of the season and enabled them to keep the persistent Chicago White Sox 5 1/2 games out of first place in the American League Central.

"We have one task at hand here," manager Jim Leyland said, "and that's to go out and play baseball the way we're capable of playing."

To a large extent, that's what the Tigers did.

"With a pitcher like Beckett," Leyland said, "a lot of times, if you can get him before he settles in, you have a chance. Otherwise, it can be a long night."

If anyone settled in, it was Tigers starter Nate Robertson (11-8), who held the Red Sox scoreless until the fifth inning.

It helped, of course, that Curtis Granderson led off the game with a triple. Craig Monroe followed with a walk, with Dmitri Young singling in Granderson after that.

That's when the Red Sox got sloppy. Wily Mo Pena bobbled Young's single to right for an error that allowed Monroe to take third -- from where he scored on a wild pitch. Young eventually scored the third run of the inning on Carlos Guillen's bouncer to the first-base side of the mound. Sean Casey's two-run single in the third made it 5-0.

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