In Game 1, Jon Lester of the Red Sox pitched 7+2⁄3 innings, allowing home runs to Sean Rodriguez in the second and Ben Zobrist in the fourth.

After Jacoby Ellsbury reached on a strike-three wild pitch, Shane Victorino capped the inning's scoring with an RBI single that put the Red Sox up 5–2.

Junichi Tazawa and Ryan Dempster provided effective relief pitching in the eighth and ninth to seal the Game 1 victory for the Red Sox.

Tampa Bay's José Lobatón hit a home run with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning off Koji Uehara into the Rays Touch Tank to beat the Red Sox 5–4 and keep the series alive.

[17] The Rays struck first off of Peavy when Yunel Escobar hit a leadoff double in the sixth, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on David DeJesus's single, but in the seventh, the Red Sox got runners on first and third with two outs off of Jake McGee, who was relieved by Joel Peralta.

The Red Sox loaded the bases off of Fernando Rodney on two walks and a hit-by-pitch before Dustin Pedroia's sacrifice fly gave them an insurance run.

Koji Uehara pitched a perfect bottom half for the save and with the series win, the Red Sox improved to 6–4 all-time in ALDS play; the Rays fell to 1–3.

Oakland Athletics rookie starter Sonny Gray matched Detroit Tigers veteran Justin Verlander with eight shutout innings and nine strikeouts.

A's catcher Stephen Vogt greeted Porcello with a line-drive single to left field, driving in Céspedes for the walk off win and tying the series at one game apiece.

The first run was unearned, when Yoenis Céspedes hit a sharp grounder to third that Miguel Cabrera mishandled for an error, allowing Coco Crisp to score from second.

The Tigers tied the game off Jarrod Parker in the bottom of the fourth, on an RBI double by Victor Martínez and a two-run single by Jhonny Peralta.

The argument included a profane exchange between Martinez and Balfour, caught by MLB Network's on-field microphones, and caused the benches to empty.

[20] The A's took another early lead on the Tigers, when Coco Crisp led off the game with a triple off Doug Fister and scored on a Jed Lowrie single.

It looked like the Tiger hitters, who had struggled to put up runs all series long, were on their way to another frustrating evening when starter Dan Straily no-hit them through the first four innings.

Tiger manager Jim Leyland went to Game 1 starter Max Scherzer as a reliever in the top of the seventh, and Oakland promptly went up 4–3 when Coco Crisp drove in Stephen Vogt with a single.

Umpires reviewed the play because the fan had clearly interfered with the path of the ball, but they let the home run stand after concluding that there was not enough video evidence to determine if right fielder Josh Reddick would have made a leaping catch.

Later in the inning, Austin Jackson gave the Tigers a 5–4 lead on a broken-bat RBI single that scored pinch runner Andy Dirks.

The A's made it interesting in the top of the ninth, getting the tying run to the plate after a two-run single by Yoenis Céspedes, but Joaquín Benoit struck out Seth Smith to prevent any further damage.

A's manager Bob Melvin also chose to go with his Game 2 starter, Sonny Gray, who had befuddled the Tigers for eight shutout innings earlier in the series.

With runners on first and third, Omar Infante hit a potential inning-ending double play ball to third off reliever Dan Otero, but Josh Donaldson bounced his throw to second baseman Alberto Callaspo.

He lost his no-hit bid with two outs in the seventh, when Yoenis Céspedes hit a hard single to center, but escaped the inning with no damage.

Closer Joaquín Benoit surrendered a two-out double to Jed Lowrie and hit Céspedes with a pitch to bring the tying run to the plate for the second straight game.