DETROIT (AP) – Kevin Youkilis’ two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning gave the Boston Red Sox a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Friday night.

It was the second loss in four days for closer Todd Jones.

With Detroit leading 2-1, Jones (0-3) retired the first two batters in the ninth. But Mike Lowell singled and Youkilis drove an 0-1 pitch just over the glove of left fielder Craig Monroe and into the bullpen for his sixth homer.

On Tuesday, Jones allowed five runs in the 11th inning of a 11-6 loss to the New York Yankees.

Rudy Seanez (1-0) got the win with a scoreless inning of relief, and rookie Jonathan Papelbon pitched the bottom of the ninth for his 20th save in as many tries. Detroit has lost five of six, while the Red Sox improved to 2-2 at the start of a 10-game road trip.

The game started as a pitching duel between the teams’ aces. Kenny Rogers allowed one run and five hits in seven innings for the Tigers. He struck out a season-high seven and walked one – David Ortiz with the bases empty and two outs in the sixth.

Curt Schilling allowed two runs and seven hits in six innings for Boston. He struck out eight without walking a batter.

Detroit went up 1-0 in the first on consecutive doubles by Placido Placido and Marcus Thames. It held the lead until Manny Ramirez tied it in the fourth with an RBI single.

Monroe led off the Detroit fifth with a single, took second on Vance Wilson’s one-out hit and scored when Polanco lined his second of three hits in the game to right.

Joel Zumaya walked Coco Crisp with one out in the eighth, but the rookie got Mark Loretta to pop up, and Curtis Granderson ran down Ortiz’s 400-foot drive in the left-center field gap to end the inning.

Notes: Polanco entered the game with a career .222 average against Schilling (4-for-18), but was the only Tiger to have more than one career hit against him. … Crisp had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 10 games and raise his career average against Rogers to .333. … Schilling has struck out 32 batters in 21 career innings against Detroit. … Ramirez argued called third strikes in both the second and sixth innings with home plate umpire Larry Vanover. … Loretta’s hitting streak was snapped at 15 games.

AP-ES-06-02-06 2215EDT