Victorino slugs Sox past Tigers

Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera, right, is welcomed at home plate by teammate Brayan Pena after hitting a three-run home run.

DETROIT — Shane Victorino was already having quite a night at the plate when he became a bit greedy in right field.

He picked up Miguel Cabrera's clean single and tried to throw the Detroit slugger out at first. Cabrera made it to the bag in time — but on this night, it seemed Victorino was capable of anything.

"He looked at me. I said, 'Yeah, you better run,'" Victorino said. "We have kind of like a friendship, a camaraderie. He's a great player."

Victorino upstaged Cabrera a bit Friday night, hitting a homer and three singles to lead the Boston Red Sox to a 10-6 win over the Tigers. Victorino matched a career high with five RBIs.

"I didn't even know what my career high was," Victorino said. "It's great. Any time you get four hits and five RBIs — for a guy like me — you always get excited for it."

Cabrera hit a three-run homer for Detroit, which nearly rallied from a 6-1 deficit but couldn't come through against the Boston bullpen. Jon Lester (7-4) allowed five runs and nine hits in 5 2/​3 innings, but he won for the first time in seven starts.

The Red Sox lost Thursday night in the ninth inning, but their bullpen held the Tigers to one run Friday.

Doug Fister (6-5) allowed six runs and 11 hits in 3 1/​3 innings.

"Doug wasn't at his sharpest, but he didn't get any luck, either," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said. "I'm not making any excuses for him, but when they hit the ball hard, and they did hit some hard, they got a hit, and when they didn't hit the ball hard, they still got a hit."

Andy Dirks also homered for Detroit, and Cabrera had four hits.

Both teams came into the game amid upheaval in the bullpen after Andrew Bailey gave up a game-winning homer to Detroit's Jhonny Peralta on Thursday. The Tigers designated Jose Valverde for assignment Friday, and the Red Sox are giving Bailey a break from closing.

Boston got through the last 3 1/​3 innings Friday with Junichi Tazawa, Craig Breslow, and Andrew Miller. Koji Uehara would likely have closed if the game had been tighter.

The Red Sox now lead Baltimore by two games atop the AL East. Cleveland trimmed Detroit's AL Central lead to three.

Fister didn't strike out a single batter, and Boston found seemingly every hole on the diamond against him. The Red Sox led 2-1 before coming up with six straight hits off Fister in the fourth. Jacoby Ellsbury's two-run double made it 4-1, and Victorino followed with a two-run single.

It was Victorino's first four-hit game since 2011. He opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first, although the Tigers tied it in the second on Brayan Pena's RBI single.

Dustin Pedroia's run-scoring groundout in the third gave Boston a 2-1 lead, and the Red Sox scored four more the following inning.

Detroit answered with four in the fifth. Dirks hit a solo shot, and Cabrera's 20th homer of the year made it 6-5 and upped his RBI total to 74.