Rays 7, Tigers 5: Rays avoid series sweep with high-scorer

Now time to enjoy an off day.

Things could certainly have gone better for the Rays with the Tigers in town. The three-game series saw plenty of low-scoring efforts from the Rays, meanwhile the Tigers were raking up the hits.

Jack Flaherty took the mound for the Tigers, while the Rays were going with a committee, as Shawn Armstrong acted as a one-inning opener before giving way to Tyler Alexander.

In the top of the first Riley Greene singled to start things off, then Wenceel Perez walked with one out. The runners each advanced a bag thanks to a balk from Armstrong, then a Spencer Torkelson groundout scored Greene. The Rays were able to keep things neck-in-neck in the bottom half as Randy Arozarena hit a two-out home run to tie things up.

Tyler Alexander was out of the pen after just one inning of Armstrong. The Tigers went down in order against their former teammate. In the bottom half of the inning, the Rays hustled to make up some headway, seeing how many runs the Tigers scored over the previous games, they knew scoring early and often was key. Amed Rosario singled to start things off, then got tagged out on a fielder’s choice that ended with Harold Ramirez safe at first. Ben Rortvedt doubled to score Ramirez. With two outs Jose Caballero singled to score Rortvedt, Caballero then stole second. A Yandy Diaz single then scored Caballero. The Rays ended the inning up 4-1.

The Tigers went 1-2-3 once again in the top of the third. Isaac Paredes got a one-out single, but was eliminated in a double play to end the inning.

Detroit had to settle for a Matt Vierling two-out single in the top of the fourth, but he was left stranded. In the bottom half, Harold Ramirez singled, then advanced to second on a wild pitch from Flaherty, but the Rays couldn’t bring him home, either. Three outs in a row followed to end the inning.

Onto the fifth and the Rays were grateful for scoring as much as they did early on. Javier Baez took a one-out walk, and Jake Rogers followed with a single. Both runners advanced on a flyout, and a Mark Canha single scored both Baez and Rogers, putting the Tigers within one run. In the home half the Rays went down in order.

Chris Devenski was next out of the pen for the Rays. With one out, Matt Vierling tripled, then a two-out Buddy Kennedy single tied the game at 4-4. Kennedy stole second, then a Javier Baez double scored Kennedy. In the bottom half the Rays managed to push back against Tigers’ reliever Will Vest. Isaac Paredes tripled to start things off, then two outs later, Ben Rortvedt singled to score Paredes, tying up the game. This was followed up with a Curtis Mead home run to bring in two additional runs. The Rays finished the inning up 7-5.

Jason Adam was out of the bullpen to start the seventh inning, and got the Tigers three-up three-down. Shelby Miller took over for the Tigers in the bottom half, and gave up a leadoff single to Yandy Diaz, but got three outs in a row to keep the Rays from capitalizing on the baserunner.

Adam continued to dominate the Tigers in the eighth, setting them down in order. Unfortunately, Andrew Chafin came out of the Tigers’ pen and did the exact same thing to the Rays,

The clubs headed into the top of the ninth with the Rays hoping Garrett Cleavinger could keep things status quo. Two quick outs seemed to have it in the bag, then he walked Jake Rogers (much to his obvious disagreement). The next out ended the game regardless, and walked away with a win to avoid the series sweep.

Final: Rays 7, Tigers 5