BOSTON – Justin Verlander struggled once but Ryan Raburn has struggled all season. So on a night when Verlander suffered his worst outing of the season, the bigger news was Raburn's demotion to Triple-A Toledo.

Raburn didn't play in Tuesday's 6-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox after he was caught looking at third strikes three times the previous day, dropping his batting average to .146.

Now, he'll get a chance to work out the kinks in the minor leagues.

"It's kind of something that I didn't want to think would happen," said Raburn, who hasn't played in the minors since a brief stint in 2010. "But, you know, the way I've been swinging it, I just really haven't gotten the job done. So it's kind of just to help the team and help me, go down there and get it going. It's just unfortunate I wasn't able to help the team out much."

Raburn said his slow start "just kind of compounded."

"I don't feel like it's trying to rediscover a swing, or nothing like that," he said. "It's just a matter of going out there getting hits. That's the bottom line. This game is based on production. And right now, it just wasn't going."

Manager Jim Leyland said he thinks the decision left Raburn "relieved, a little bit," adding the player "needs to get away."

"There's never been anything I've been more sure of than that he needs to go down," Leyland said. "He needs to go try to find it.

"A lot of times, as a manager, you have some tough calls when you've got to send a guy out, whoever it may be. But this was not a tough call. We all love Ryan Raburn. He's a very popular teammate. The coaches and I are in his corner, and still will be, because I don't think we've seen the end of him. I'll be shocked if he doesn't get it going. But right now, this is definitely the move to make."

The move came one day after Leyland surprised many people by inserting Raburn into the No. 2 spot in the batting order.

"We obviously were thinking about this decision," Leyland said. "We kept trying to give him an opportunity. That's why I slipped him in the two hole yesterday. I couldn't really say that (then) but I knew something was going to happen soon, and this move was going to be made."

The Tigers did not announce the corresponding roster move.

Raburn's demotion came after an uncharacteristically poor performance by Verlander, who struggled to extend his streak of six-plus-inning outings to 53.

Verlander lost consecutive starts for the first time since April 2011 and allowed a season-high 10 hits in six innings.

Meantime, the Tigers were suffering another rash of stranded runners, with 10, in game which included a 38-minute rain delay in the bottom of the eighth inning.

"You give up five runs in this park, it's certainly not vintage Justin Verlander," Leyland said. "But at the same time, five runs is certainly not unreachable in this park. We had our shots."

The critical moment came in the fourth, when Verlander allowed a full-count, two-out, three-run double to Daniel Nava.

Verlander's last three pitches to Nava were 99, 99 and 100 miles per hour. The switch-hitting Nava got around just enough on the last one to slice the ball down the left-field line for a bases-clearing hit which staked Red Sox starter Daniel Bard (5-5) to a 4-0 lead.

Verlander gave up his last run in the fifth inning, when Adrian Gonzalez led off with a single and David Ortiz followed with a double.

Ortiz had three extra-base hits, including a seventh-inning home run off Duane Below, and took over the American League lead in that category with 29.

That's 23 more extra-base hits than Raburn has.

"I'm going to go down there and play just as hard as I do here, and hopefully get it going, because I know I can help this ball club," Raburn said. "It's just a matter of getting it going, getting back, and doing it."

Email David Mayo at dmayo@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo