After Jose Valverde blew his first save since Sept. 2, 2010, the Detroit Tigers rallied in the bottom of the ninth and Austin Jackson hit a walk-off single with the bases loaded for a 3-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Opening Day.
Justin Verlander surrendered just two hits over eight scoreless innings, but Valverde was tagged for two runs in the top of the ninth inning. First, David Ortiz hit a sacrifice fly to score Dustin Pedroia, then Ryan Sweeney tied the game with a triple.
The Tigers broke a 0-0 tie in the seventh inning when Alex Avila doubled home Jhonny Peralta off of Red Sox starter Jon Lester. Lester pitched seven innings, allowing six hits and one run. Prince Fielder added another run with a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning.
Mark Melancon was tagged with the loss for Boston, after giving up two hits in the bottom of the ninth. Red Sox closer Alfredo Aceves came in to try to clean up Melancon's mess, but, after hitting Ramon Santiago, Jackson singled down the third base line to win the game for the Tigers.
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