Salt and pepper: Sox drop finale to Tigers

Quintin Berry had three hits, scored the go-ahead run and made a key running grab in front of the center-field wall as the Tigers salvaged the finale of the four-game series with a 7-3 win over the Red Sox Thursday night at Fenway. Jarrod Saltalamacchia drilled his 10th homer of the year and added an RBI single for the Red Sox, who won 3-of-4 in the series, stand at 26-25 and finished May with a 15-14 mark. 

Josh Beckett pitched seven innings, allowing 10 hits and four runs, walking one and striking out one to fall to 4-5 on the season.

The Red Sox staked Beckett to a two-run lead in the second when the red-hot Saltalamacchia drilled his 10th homer of the season to deep right-center, coming just a few feet from hitting the Jordan's Furniture billboard to the right of the yellow line. Saltalamacchia drove a 94 mph fastball from Max Scherzer (5-3) to the seats for his fifth homer in 11 games and his sixth in his last 15 games. Two outs later, Scott Podsednik doubled home Ryan Sweeney to make it 2-0. 

Sweeney kept the game scoreless in the top of the inning when he made a perfect throw from deep down the right-field line to nail Delmon Young trying to score on a Jhonny Peralta fly ball. 

The Tigers took their first lead of the night in the top of the third against Beckett when Don Kelly, Danny Worth and Berry opened with three straight hits to produce one run. Brennan Boesch followed with a sacrifice fly to tie the game and Prince Fielder capped the three-run rally with a single to center. 

The Red Sox got the run right back in the third when Saltalamacchia delivered again. With two outs and none on, Kevin Youkilis doubled to left and Saltalamacchia singled to center to tie the game. 

The Tigers took the lead in the fifth when Berry singled, stole second, took third on a Saltalamacchia throwing error and scored on a single by Miguel Cabrera. The Red Sox appeared to have a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the seventh when Daniel Nava drilled a deep fly to center with Podsednik on second. But Berry ran it down to preserve the lead. The Tigers added insurance in the eighth when Delmon Young crushed a Franklin Morales fastball off the AAA banner above the Green Monster, putting the Tigers up, 5-3. 

The Red Sox finished their seven-game homestand with a 4-3 mark and now embark on a brief three-game road trip to Toronto beginning Friday night before returning to Fenway next Tuesday to take on the Orioles. 

For complete coverage from Alex Speier and Mike Petraglia at Fenway Park, visit the Red Sox team page at weei.com/redsox and the Full Count blog.