Napoli blasts Boston to brink of World Series as Tigers falter

Mike Napoli's drive cleared the wall in center field and landed in the ivy - a spot at Comerica Park usually reserved for Miguel Cabrera's prodigious homers.

In this series, Napoli has been the one hitting key home runs while Cabrera remains stymied by a tough Boston bullpen.

Napoli opened the scoring with another big long ball, Junichi Tazawa again bested Cabrera in a crucial spot and the Red Sox moved within one win of reaching the World Series by edging the Detroit Tigers 4-3 on Thursday night.

Boston returns to Fenway Park with a 3-2 lead in the AL Championship Series. The Red Sox can win the American League pennant on Saturday when the Tigers' Max Scherzer faces the Red Sox's Clay Buchholz in Game 6.

"Our guys are well aware of where we are," Boston manager John Farrell said. "But at the same time the beauty of them is to not get ahead of themselves, and that will be the case once that first pitch is thrown on Saturday."

Cabrera was thrown out at the plate in the first inning, halting an early Detroit rally, and he hit into a double play against Tazawa with runners at the corners in the seventh. The Tigers scored a run on the grounder, but it was a trade-off the Red Sox were willing to make.

Napoli opened a three-run second with his homer off Anibal Sanchez. Detroit's starters had allowed only three runs in 27 innings through the first four games of the series. After pitching six no-hit innings in Game 1, Sanchez allowed four - three earned - in six innings on Thursday.

"It seemed like he was living on the corners and got us to chase some pitches the first game," Napoli said. "Me personally, I was just trying to get something up in the zone and see pitches like I always do, and I was able to get something up."

Jon Lester allowed two runs and seven hits in 5 1/3 innings. He walked three and struck out three, and the Boston bullpen held on to finish off the fourth game of the series to be decided by one run.

"There's probably a reason I don't have any hair," Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. "It's stressful."

Down 4-2 in the seventh, the Tigers put runners on first and third with nobody out when Jose Iglesias and Torii Hunter singled. Cabrera, who struck out with runners at the corners against Tazawa in the eighth inning of a 1-0 loss in Game 3, hit a soft grounder to second for a double play this time.

"We have to go to Fenway and we have to fight hard enough to win a game," Cabrera said. "If we do that, we have to keep fighting and get the next one. We've done this before, and we've got great pitchers. We just have to do our jobs."

Craig Breslow retired slumping Prince Fielder to end the seventh and got the first out of the eighth. Then Koji Uehara retired five straight for the save.

Now Detroit turns to Scherzer, a 21-game winner, to try to extend the season. The Tigers will have Justin Verlander ready to pitch Game 7; if there is one.

Detroit may be without catcher Alex Avila in Boston. He left after the top of the fourth with a strained left knee and is day to day.

Boston led in only four of 36 innings in the first four games, but the Red Sox won two of them. They struck early in Game 5 when Napoli's drive easily cleared the 420-foot marker in center and landed in the ivy above two rows of bushes. That was the start of a three-run second inning, and it was Napoli's second homer of the series. His solo shot accounted for the only run of Game 3.

Napoli wasn't all that concerned with where the ball went, as long as it cleared the wall.

"It can go in the first row for all I care," he said.

(China Daily 10/19/2013 page16)