Major League Baseball

Steady rain, not the Tigers, slow down the Red Sox

Published May. 29, 2011 2:38 a.m. ET

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Maybe only the rain can stop the Boston Red Sox these days.

Boston's game on the road against the Detroit Tigers was postponed because of rain Saturday night.

The game will be made up in a day-night double-header Sunday. The first game will begin at 1:05 p.m. with Andy Oliver making his first start for the Tigers against Clay Buchholz. The nightcap is scheduled to start at 7:05 p.m., featuring aces Josh Beckett for the Red Sox and Justin Verlander for the Tigers

Boston has won four straight, including two in Detroit, and 12 of its last 14 games.

''Yeah, we're playing good,'' Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. ''We know where we came from, so we're just going to keep showing up every day and play winning baseball. That's it.

''It's been fun. We're going to keep it going.''

Boston has won 29 of 45 games since starting 0-6, its worst start since 1945.

The Red Sox have scored 34 runs in their previous three games.

''We're obviously doing good things with the bat right now, but we have to keep that going,'' manager Terry Francona said. ''You don't want to take that for granted.''

Francona, though, is trying not to publicly get excited about outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury hitting home runs in consecutive games for the second time this season.

''I'm not going to talk about Jacoby hitting homers because I don't want him to start thinking about that,'' Francona said. ''His job is to hit line drives, get on base and disrupt the game. Any power we get from him is a bonus.''

Ellsbury is hitting .299 with six homers and 27 RBIs.

''I know that if I put a good swing on it and get the right trajectory, it's going to go,'' Ellsbury said. ''Those line drives that I've been hitting, if I get a little air under them, those balls are gone, too. I just try and hit line drives and keep it simple.''

The Tigers and Red Sox, who don't have another trip scheduled to Detroit, simply wanted to play Saturday and didn't have a chance.

Light rain began to fall about 10 minutes after the scheduled start and it quickly got heavier without much relief in sight on radar maps.

It was postponed after a delay of 1 hour, 25 minutes, wiping out the fourth game in Detroit due to rain over a 14-day span. The Tigers also had a game called in the eighth inning Thursday in a 14-1 loss against Boston.

''Maybe one of these we'll play,'' Tigers left-hander Phil Coke, who is on the disabled list, muttered as he walked out of Comerica Park on Saturday night.

Since at least 1990, the Tigers have not had four rainouts in 14 days at home, according to STATS, LLC.

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