That pretty much tells the story. Despite hitting .133 (12-90) and striking out 35 times in the first three games of the ALCS, the Red Sox lead the Tigers two games to one.

Justin Verlander continued his postseason dominance, pitching eight innings of one-run ball while striking out 10 hitters. The first Red Sox hit didn’t come Jonny Gomes beat out an infield single in the fifth inning (Jhonny Peralta should’ve been charged an error for a bad throw to first base), and their only run came on a Mike Napoli solo shot in the seventh. Napoli had struck out in eight of his last nine plate appearances prior to hitting the home run.

The one run is all John Lackey needed, because he’s used to the lack of run support. Lackey threw inarguably his best game in a Red Sox uniform, shutting out the Tigers for six and two-third innings in Game 3.

Lackey Is A Warrior

The Red Sox signed Lackey for big games. Prior to his start on Tuesday, he had a 3.35 ERA in 15 career playoff appearances.

Lackey outdueled Verlander, with his biggest sequence coming in the bottom of the fifth inning. After allowing a lead-off double to Peralta (seemingly the only guy who can hit in this series), Lackey retired the next three hitters he face to leave him stranded in scoring position.

Lackey overpowered Miguel Cabrera, who struck out on a high fastball in the fourth inning and popped out in the sixth. Cabrera and Prince Fielder have combined to hit .167 in the playoffs.

Lackey is one of the most competitive guys in baseball, and pitches his best when it matters most (except in 2011, but we’ll excuse that because Lackey should’ve had Tommy John surgery that season). He shows exasperation when his fielders misplay a ball behind him, and usually doesn’t want to come out of games. Lackey is everything Red Sox fans want in a pitcher. (His much-maligned contract is now a bargain, too. Because Lackey missed all of 2012 with his pre-existing elbow condition, he is signed for the league minimum in 2015.)

No longer think of Lackey as a part of the “chicken and beer crew.” Think of him as this guy:

Warrior. Total warrior.

Napoli Comes Through

Napoli has alternated between being the most frustrating hitter to watch on planet and Red Sox savior this season more times than Oprah has changed weight classes.

He carried the team with four home runs and 27 RBI in April before accumulating virtually accumulating those same power numbers in both May and June (five home runs and 27 RBI). Napoli hit .333 with six home runs in September after batting .208 with 26 strikeouts in August.

Napoli had gone 2-17 in the postseason with 10 strikeouts prior to his home run off Verlander on Tuesday. The Red Sox need Napoli’s right-handed bat to protect David Ortiz’s in the lineup, and the only way he’s going to hit out of a slump is if he plays through it. He looked helpless at the plate throughout the entirety of the series before he caught up a high 90s Verlander fastball in the middle of the plate.

Meanwhile, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Will Middlebrooks went a combined 0-6 with four strikeouts in the game. John Farrell should think long and hard about subbing in David Ross and Xander Bogaerts for those two in Game 3. Drew probably saved himself from being “Bogaerts’d” with a lead-off double in the eighth inning.

Farrell’s Curious Moves Paid Off, But It Doesn’t Make Him Right

Prior to the game, Farrell announced he would be starting Gomes in left field over Daniel Nava against Verlander because of his intangibles. There is no doubt Gomes is a … wait for it … dirt dog. He hustles his ass off on every play, as evidenced by the fact that he scored from second base on an infield single in Game 1 of the ALDS against the Rays and plated the game-winning run against the Tigers on Sunday night.

Even though the move worked out, though, Farrell shouldn’t be praised for ignoring Nava’s impressive offensive performance against right-handed pitchers this season.

The other puzzling move Farrell made was inserting Junichi Tazawa into the game instead of Koji Uehara to face Torii Hunter and Miguel Cabrera with a man on base in the eighth inning. Craig Breslow was removed from the game after he walked Austin Jackson to lead off the frame (Jackson only walked 52 times in 617 plate appearances out of the leadoff spot this season), and Tazawa promptly allowed a base hit to Hunter. With men on the corners, Tazawa fanned Cabrera with a 94 mph low and away for the second out of the inning.

It was a huge moment for Tazawa, who still hasn’t allowed a run in the postseason. But it was strange for Farrell to wait until Fielder came up to put Uehara in to the game. Unless Farrell thinks there’s such a catastrophic difference between a four-out save and five-out save, Uehara should’ve been in there to face Cabrera. (Uehara, of course, struck out Fielder on three pitches before shutting down the Tigers for his first save of the series in the ninth inning.)

Before Twitter, Where Did Sportswriters Go To Make Their Awful Jokes?

A 17 minute power outage delayed the game in the second inning, which meant there were hundreds of bored sports writers in the press box with internet access and nothing to do. So, they decided to take their comedic stylings to the people:

Clever. Is a joke about Detroit going to follow?

GIMME SOMETHING ABOUT THE BLACKOUT IN THE SUPER BOWL!  GIVE IT TO ME!

Or, a pun will do. (Don’t mean to blame the messenger, Buck.)

Looking Ahead

Jake Peavy will take on Doug Fister in Game 4. Starting pitching has dominated in the series, as there have already been two 1-0 games.

Fister went 14-9 with a 3.67 ERA this season, and has pitched like a top of the rotation caliber arm since the Tigers acquired him in July 2011. But it’s hard to stand out on a staff with Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer and Verlander.

It will be interesting to see if Jim Leyland makes any changes to his lineup in Game 4, such as starting Jose Iglesias at shortstop and moving Peralta to left field. Fister is a ground ball pitcher, and could use Iglesias’ smooth hands in the infield.

Farrell announced after the game he would start Nava in left field behind Peavy, who threw five and two-third innings of one-run ball against the Rays in the clinching Game 4 of the ALDS. One can only hope Peavy strikes out Iglesias three times on Wednesday, just for laughs.

Photos via Ronald Martinez/Getty Images, Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images and  Brian Snyder/Reutersy

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