Report: Red Sox believe Tigers messing with schedule

The Boston Red Sox reportedly believe the Detroit Tigers are manipulating the schedule in an effort to get back at former executive Dave Dombrowski.

The two clubs are slated to play in Detroit on Thursday at 1:10 p.m. ET, just over 12 hours after the Red Sox completed their two-game series in Baltimore Wednesday night.

During the offseason, Boston requested Thursday's series opener at Comerica Park be rescheduled as a night game, but the Tigers refused to make the accommodation despite Major League Baseball's blessing.

According to John Tomase of WEEI, the Red Sox believe the Tigers won't push back the start time to gain a competitive advantage over Boston and Dombrowski, the club's president of baseball operations, who was fired last August after 13 seasons as Detroit's general manager.

The Tigers have maintained that their reluctance is due to 1 p.m. start times on Thursdays being "popular" in Detroit, according to GM Al Aliva, an assertion challenged in Tomase's report. From WEEI:

Last Aug. 19, the Tigers beat the Cubs at Wrigley Field at 7 p.m. The next night, they shut out the Rangers at home. The situation did not present itself in 2014, but it did previously in 2013, and the White Sox followed a night win in Cleveland with a 7 p.m. Thursday game at Comerica Park, tradition apparently be damned. That August, they even followed a 1 p.m. win in Chicago with a 7 p.m. game at home the next night against the Royals. In April of 2012, they beat the Royals at 7:10 p.m., and then returned home to lose to the Rangers at 7:07 p.m.

The scheduling spat follows a frantic week for the Red Sox, having played three games in three cities. Boston will arrive in the Motor City riding a six-game winning streak.

Meanwhile, the four-game showdown comes at a less than ideal time for the scuffling Tigers, who have dropped eight of their last 10 and sit 3 1/2 games back of Baltimore for the AL's second wild-card spot.