Tigers 8, Red Sox 3: Justin Upton’s big night helps Detroit snap skid

The Detroit Tigers won a baseball game! They defeated the Boston Red Sox 8-3 at Fenway Park on Sunday night in a game that took entirely too long to play. Daniel Norris earned his third win of the season, and the Tigers snapped a three-game losing streak. Let’s talk about what happened

Justin Upton is on fire again

Upton had the biggest hit of the night for the Tigers, a grand slam that broke the game open in the fifth inning. It was Upton’s 13th home run of the season, a feat that the team’s beat writers will happily tell you took him much longer to accomplish last season.

More relevant, however, is that it was Upton’s fourth home run in June. He had a 1.070 OPS this month heading into Sunday’s game, a figure that surely went up after he finished 3-for-5 with five RBI. He has only drawn one walk during that span, but it’s hard to argue with the results. Plus, Upton has a long track record of good plate discipline.

Daniel Norris was... good? Bad?

I’m not sure what to make of Norris’ performance. He held a potent Red Sox lineup to two runs in five innings, but took 96 pitches to get there. It certainly wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing performance — he allowed 10 baserunners in his five frames — but he struck out six and gave up fewer runs than his counterpart, Drew Pomeranz.

If this were one start, we wouldn’t be remotely worried. However, this has been a season-long trend for Norris, who has yet to show the consistent success he maintained for most of the last two months of 2016.

This game took way too long to finish

I don’t know if ESPN is at fault for a nine-inning game taking more than four hours, but I’m going to blame them anyway.

ROARS:

The team in Detroit Tigers uniforms: They were good and they won.

HISSES:

Idk the Red Sox I guess

STATS AND STUFF:

The Tigers are now 8-4 at Fenway Park under Brad Ausmus