Day starts off with NESN not cutting in time to see first play of game. Martinez makes the play, but we never see how difficult it was. Not even a replay, which should have been mandatory on a play we didn't see live. Announcers talk about how Victor doesn't normally play first and how the first play ends up going his way. Know what a perfect companion visual would have been? The play!

Then Doubront, knowing he's got Cabrera, Fielder, and Martinez at 3-4-5, walks the first two batters he sees. He gets out of it trailing just 2-0 though, and we quickly tie it at 2 against Verlander.

With two outs and two strikes, a passed ball gives the Tigers the lead again in the 2nd.

Again we tie it right away. Pedroia got a gift call on an infield hit, but the inning ends as Drew supposedly tips the ball into the mitt on a check swing. They show a replay as they go to break which doesn't seem to show the bat making contact with the ball. But Don says nothing and we never see another replay or hear anything else about it. (Though they do go on for five minutes about Mike Napoli's likes and dislikes over the course of the next inning.)

We get the go-ahead run in the fourth, and at this point the game is about 16 hours old.

It's 4-3 us 23 hours after that, after 6 innings. We get the first two on in the 7th but don't score.

Bottom 7, for the second time in the game, we give them a gift run to tie the game with two outs and two strikes, this time on a hit-by-pitch. This is after Bailey had come in to start the inning with a one-run lead. I was under the impression we'd removed Bailey from all "we're winning" roles, but incredibly I was wrong. He would give up two hits over three batters, and it was one of those runners who would score to tie the game.

Top 8, Victorino is pinch hit for, and Don acts like nothing's wrong. We (much) later find out it was an injury. Funny, we saw Victorino double over in apparent pain in his previous at bat, but just then they cut away and talked about something else. Anyway, as Nava batted with the go-ahead run at second, I switch to TBS and see Loney get a tie-breaking two-run single against the Yanks. (That 3-1 lead would hold up.) I switched back hoping for a double-dose of awesome, but Nava strikes out.

Now Nava's in right field. The first play goes to him, and he makes the catch and drops it on the transfer, but the ump rules he never had it. All umps gather, and every one of them, apparently, thought this was a dropped ball when it was clearly a catch by a fielder in complete control. Farrell is ejected arguing as NESN botches everything on the coverage.

Miller makes a throwing error on the ensuing sac bunt, and pretty soon the Tigers are taking the lead on a sac fly. Then with a 2-0 count to Cabrera, we go with the intentional walk. Why give Fielder any more motivation? Just throw two more balls. Nope. Breslow then comes in and Price crowns him with a two-run single. 7-4 Detroit.

Those extra runs were big as we'd score one in the ninth and end the game with the tying run up. 7-5 final.

So we lose 3 of 4 in MotorVille. The next two teams in the division lost to the bottom two though, so we stay 2 up on Balty, 2.5 on New York, with Tampa and Toronto closing to 5 back. Going into Detroit, we had a 1.5 game lead (after game one it was down to only 1), and now it's 2. That's all that matters.

Bonus stuff: Nice play by Victor on that "long snap" to the pitcher. (I like how Don said "he nevvver even looked at first," mere seconds after we watched him clearly turn his entire head to look at first before grabbing the ball and making the no-look pass.)

Great job by Dan Petry in the color role. Again, maybe anybody seems amazing considering what we're used to, but he really got the job done and even seemed to be rooting for us, if only slightly.

NESN continues to show the "3 faces" (due up) at the end of some innings, without giving the score. And it would be okay if Don would just say the damn score over it. Instead, he just reads what's on the screen.

NESN's "Xfinity Game Summary" always shows the score and the performances of some players, but doesn't show...the inning! If you're summarizing a game in the middle of it, you better give me two things, score and inning, above all. Terrible job.