DETROIT — If Justin Verlander was the elephant in Comerica Park Tuesday, John Lackey played the role of the bulldog.
Known for a competitive drive that borders on being savage, Lackey added unhittable cut fastballs and relied on his experience to outpitch Verlander and help guide the Red Sox to a pulsating, 1-0, win over the Tigers in Game 3 of the ALCS in front of 42,327 at Comerica Park, where a power outage cut the lights out for 17 minutes in the second inning.
“He was really good, he had a good cutter and a good slider,’’ Tigers right fielder Torii Hunter said. “He changed speeds on the cutter and kept us off balance. He pitched like Lackey of the Angels.’’
Lackey’s brilliant 6²/₃ shutout innings was accompanied by Mike Napoli’s seventh-inning homer off Verlander — who was viewed as the man to get the Tigers back on track after their heartbreaking Game 2 loss — and a solid performance by the Red Sox bullpen.
The victory puts the Red Sox up 2-1 in the best-of-seven series that continues Wednesday night with Game 4. Doug Fister starts for the Tigers and Jake Peavy goes for the Red Sox.
With the game scoreless in the fifth, Lackey gave up a leadoff double to Jhonny Peralta and retired the next three Tigers. After getting Peralta to fly out for the second out in the seventh, Red Sox manager John Farrell went to the mound to lift Lackey.
“You have to be [kidding] me,’’ Lackey growled at Farrell.
Things got a little tighter when lefty Craig Breslow walked Alex Avila, but he fed Omar Infante a ground ball for the final out.
“I wasn’t quite ready to come out at that point,’’ said Lackey, who allowed four hits and fanned eight. “But Bres has had a great series and we won the game and that’s what matters.’’
Despite being in a 2-for-17 (.118) slump with eight strikeouts, Farrell put Napoli back in at first base after using Mike Carp there in Game 2.
The move didn’t look so good when Verlander whiffed Napoli in the second and fifth innings. But on a 3-2 count in the seventh, Napoli hit a 96 mph fastball into the Tigers’ bullpen in left-center.
“The two sliders before the fastballs I felt comfortable and confident that I took two sliders,’’ said Napoli, whose first big league homer came in his initial big league at-bat off Verlander on May 4, 2006, at Comerica. “I was trying to be short to the ball and I got a pitch I could handle.’’
Verlander, who allowed a run, four hits and fanned 10, thought the heater was the best choice because of the previous at-bats Napoli had against him.
“I felt like he hadn’t seen the fastball very well,’’ Verlander said. “I decided to challenge him. There was a little mistake, a little up and in the middle but he did a good job.’’
Verlander understood the magnitude of how good Lackey was.
“To give the team a chance to win today, I had to throw up zeroes and I wasn’t able to do that,’’ Verlander said.
The Tigers had a chance in the eighth with runners at first and third and Miguel Cabrera facing right-hander Junichi Tazawa with one out. Cabrera fanned on a 94 mph fastball, and closer Koji Uehara then struck out Prince Fielder.
“We had first and third with our big dogs coming up and that’s all you want,’’ said Hunter who watched the rally expire from first base. “We had a chance, that’s all you want.’’
A final chance surfaced in the ninth when Victor Martinez led off with a single, but Uehara induced Peralta to bang into a 6-4-3 double play.
“That’s the John Lackey of old,’’ Breslow said. “He went up against one of the best in the game and one upped them.’’