Brandon Lowe homered and drove in three runs, Jeffrey Springs tossed six strong innings, and the visiting Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Detroit Tigers 6-2 on Thursday.
Lowe had three hits, while Randy Arozarena supplied four hits and drove in two runs. Yandy Diaz scored twice in the opener of a four-game series.
Springs (4-3) limited the Tigers to two unearned runs and four hits in six innings while recording six strikeouts.
Javier Baez led the Tigers with two hits and an RBI. Drew Hutchison (1-5) gave up four runs (two earned) and eight hits in six innings.
Diaz drew a one-out walk in the third before Lowe launched his eighth homer over the right field wall. Tampa Bay had two more baserunners later in the inning, but Hutchison retired David Peralta on a popup to mitigate the damage.
Sloppy fielding helped the Tigers tie it in the bottom of the inning. Daz Cameron led off with a single and advanced when third baseman Diaz made an error on Harold Castro’s grounder. Diaz made another error on Victor Reyes’ fielder’s choice grounder, loading the bases. Riley Greene hit a sacrifice fly to bring home Cameron. Castro scored on Baez’s opposite-field single.
An error helped Tampa Bay get those runs back in the fourth. With two out, Christian Bethancourt smacked a single and moved up on Baez’s fielding error on a Diaz liner. Lowe singled to right to knock in Bethancourt. Diaz scored on Hutchison’s wild pitch.
Left fielder Reyes made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Bethancourt of a homer in the sixth.
Baez led off the bottom of the inning with a single and eventually reached third but was left stranded.
The Rays made it 5-2 in the seventh. Alex Lange walked Isaac Paredes and Ji-Man Choi with one out. A wild pitch moved the runners up before Arozarena singled past a drawn-in infield to score Paredes.
Choi hit a two-out single in the ninth off Wily Peralta and scored on Arozarena’s double.
–Field Level Media
