Splinters’ Slugger Mickey Mantle’s 8th inning home run put Boston on top on their way to a 4-2 victory over the Detroit Rockets. The loss was Detroit’s 3rd straight after a 4-0 start. Boston has now won 6 straight to improve to 6-1. Boston’s Frank Thomas hit his league-leading 5th homer in the 4th off Frank Tanana to break a 0-0 tie. In the 5th, Dick Allen hit an RBI double off Jim Palmer to tie the game, and Miguel Cabrera drove him in with a base hit to put the Rockets up 2-1. Tanana had retired 14 straight batters before Ted Williams hit a 2-out double in the 8th. That’s when Mantle took the next pitch deep to put the Splinters back on top 3-2. Alan Trammell added a solo shot of his own off Dan Quisenberry to extend the lead to 4-2. Rollie Fingers pitched a perfect 9th for his 3rd save. Palmer walked 6 and allowed 7 hits in 8 innings. Boston also committed 3 errors, but still came out on top to improve Palmer to 2-0.