With that Brayan Pena pop-out to short, the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Detroit Tigers by a score of 3-1. Jeremy Hellickson was credited with his seventh win of the year and the fifth of the month, while Fernando Rodney pitched in his second consecutive game, accruing save number 17 on 20 pitches (11 for strikes). Rodney is now 8-for-his-last-8 in save opportunities.
The prospect of retribution lingered all day following last night’s events, and the subsequent plunking of Ben Zobrist this afternoon. In the end though, Tampa Bay let a beautifully pitched game (see below) speak for themselves, while Jim Leyland and Rick Porcello ending up being the ones that felt the need to resort to bush league moves.
Tampa Bay ended their six game home stand with a pair of series victories on four wins against the Blue Jays and Tigers. They’re also tied for third with New York at the moment, five-and-a-half games out of first in the AL East. You can read our account of the game at our Tumblr page. In the meantime, we’ll be busy writing the Rays/Astros series preview ahead of their upcoming four game road trip to Houston, starting tomorrow.