All three Tampa Bay outfielders homered and had two RBIs, Shane McClanahan crafted seven strong innings and the Tampa Bay Rays toppled the Detroit Tigers 8-1 on Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Kevin Kiermaier went 3-for-4 and drove in lone runs in the second and fourth innings with a long ball and a single, respectively, as the Rays pulled out to a 6-1 lead after five frames.
Tampa Bay’s Brett Phillips and Randy Arozarena hit solo blasts, and Yandy Diaz and Harold Ramirez each produced two hits and a run.
McClanahan (3-2) was masterful against the Tigers’ struggling offense. The left-hander yielded four hits, a run and no walks while striking out seven.
Jeimer Candelario homered and Robbie Grossman had two hits, but the Tigers saw their season-best, four-game winning streak end.
Detroit starter Beau Brieske (0-3) surrendered six runs and nine hits — two of them solo homers — over 5 1/3 innings. He fanned four and walked one.
In the first inning, singles by Diaz and Ramirez led to a run on Ji-Man Choi’s fielder’s choice to first base, but Brieske fanned Arozarena to end it.
Batting just .174 entering the night, Kiermaier fouled a pitch off his foot and then swatted Brieske’s 0-2 curveball an estimated 402 feet to right field for a homer in the second.
Kiermaier was at it again in the fourth, driving in a run with an RBI single to center.
On the first pitch of the fifth, Candelario turned on a 94 mph four-seam fastball from McClanahan, launching a 430-foot homer deep to left-center to trim Detroit’s deficit to 3-1.
In the home half of the frame, Phillips immediately got the run back, homering for the second consecutive night with a long drive to right-center. An RBI single from Choi and a sacrifice fly from Arozarena boosted the Rays’ lead to 6-1.
In its best chance to get back in the game, Detroit loaded the bases to start the eighth on consecutive singles by Spencer Torkelson, Daz Cameron and Grossman off Ralph Garza Jr., but a fielder’s choice at home and a double-play grounder left them scoreless.
Arozarena clubbed a homer to lead off the eighth, and Phillips added a sacrifice fly.
–Field Level Media
