The Tampa Bay Rays were in a prime position going into the contest agains the Tigers, Saturday. Just 8.5 games out of first, the Rays had an opportunity to end the day 7.5 games back if everything broke in their favor. Yet things didn’t look good until the fifth inning — dare I say it looked like as though they were in route for yet another low scoring game, or even another no hitter? But something happened: Logan Forsythe opened the door to an offensive onslaught with his solo shot in the fifth inning. The Rays walked out of Comerica Park with a big 7-2 win.
With the exceptions of a pitchers duel between Chris Archer and Anibel Sanchez — a pair of pitchers who traded zeros for much of the game — things were quiet halfway through regulation. Tampa Bay remained hitless until the fifth inning, and the Tigers wouldn’t even score until the seventh. But, as mentioned above, Logan Forsythe ended Sanchez’s no-no bid with a fifth inning solo shot to left, giving the Rays a lead they’d never relinquish.
Ryan Hanigan followed Forsythe with a walk which paid dividends for the Rays. Hanigan ultimately scored from first on Kevin Kiermaier’s first triple of the game — a crushed liner that bounced off the to of the right field wall. Though Hanigan sprinted from first to home, the odds were good that he would have been out by a mile had Alex Avila been able to handle the relay throw. Yet he couldn’t, and Hanigan scored the second run of the inning. Better yet, they weren’t done incurring damage in the fifth. Desmond Jennings drove in Kiermaier from third on a single, just out of the reach of Ian Kinsler, giving the Rays a chance to expand their lead to three.
And just when the Tigers thought Sanchez could clean up his game, the sixth became even more fruitful inning for the Rays. Matt Joyce and Evan Longoria hit back-to-back singles, putting a runner in scoring position. Then James Loney reached on a walk, loading the bases with no outs. Brandon Guyer plated Joyce from third on a deep sac-fly, which also allowed Longo to tag and move to third. Forsythe kept the Rays spikes on the throat of the Tigers after he executed a perfect safety squeeze play that would have found him Zim’s favor. The best of both worlds: Longoria scored from third, while Forsythe ended up safe at first after he beat Sanchez and Miguel Cabrera to the bag.
With a five run lead, Kevin Kermaier stepped to the plate and mashed his second triple of the game — scoring both Loney and Forsythe, and giving the Rays a commanding 7-0 lead. Kevin Kiermaier became the sixth Ray to hit two triples in one game. Incidentally, Matt Joyce was the last Ray to do so, while both he and Kiermaier hit their pair of triples off Anibal Sanchez.
Archer was excellent in his start, slashing 8.1 IP/6 H/2 R/2 ER/4 BB/4 SO/2 HR. His fastball touched 97 MPH, while his slider — which got better as the game progressed — kept the Tigers honest. Archer was incredibly efficient, giving him at least a shot of finishing out the game. However, a rough ninth inning ultimately spelled his doom.
Archer gave up a leadoff homer to JD Martinez which was followed by a Torii Hunter single. He was able to strike out Nick Castellanos, though his day was done after he walked Avila after a lengthy battle. With his day done, Joe Maddon called upon Grant Balfour to close out the game. Balfour was effective, striking out Austin Romine and Rajai Davis to end the game.
The New What Next
The Rays win gave them a 40-50 record, just a half game behind the World Series champs. Expect another pitching duel this evening, when David Price takes the bump against Rick Porcello and the Tigers. Porcello is on a run of three consecutive shutout starts. Overall, Porcello has given up two earned runs or fewer 10 times this season. Porcello throws both a two-seam and four-seam fastball – both of which can reach the mid-90s (although the four-seamer is a bit faster). His heavy two-seamer/sinker has plenty of life down in the zone and induces ground balls — a 47.4 GB% speaks to that. You can read about the pitching matchup in our series preview, and I’ll post the starting lineup when it becomes available.
Rays 7/6/14 Starting Lineup
Jennings CF
Zobrist SS
Joyce LF
Longoria 3B
Loney 1B
Forsythe 2B
Rodriguez DH
Molina C
Kiermaier RF
Price P
Noteworthiness
- Per Marc Topkin, Jeremy Hellickson is “ready to go,” but Joe Maddon won’t have any specifics on the rotation until after tonight’s game.
