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May 17, 2007
The Red Sox' 2-1 win over Detroit in today's opener was clinched by two solid relief efforts.
Taking over for starter Julian Tavarez in the eighth, Hideki Okajima forced the Tigers' Placido Polanco to fly out to right, struck out Gary Sheffield and got clean-up hitter Magglio Ordonez to pop up to first.
In so doing, Okajima extended his scoreless streak to 18 2/3 innings over his last 18 outings. Recording nearly half of his 45 outs with strikeouts, he has retired 53 of the last 62 batters he has faced and boasts an ERA of 0.46.
Making his first save appearance since May 6 at Minnesota, Papelbon struck out Carlos Guillen and Ivan Rodriguez, then got Sean Casey to ground out to short en route to his 11th save. He has pitched four shutout innings with three saves in his last four appearances, blowing his only save on May 1 against Oakland.
``It's so nice to be able to get to the eighth and feel like regardless of what the score is, you're going to win,'' said Sox skipper Terry Francona. ``It doesn't necessarily always work out that way, but we should have a lot of confidence in the way those guys are throwing. I know our team does. I know they do. Okajima throws strikes and it doesn't matter if he's facing a lefty or righty, he's equally as tough.''
``No panic with Pap,'' added Tavarez.
Posted by Carolyn Thornton 
at 4:35 PM to Thornton
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