Tampa Bay Devil Rays lose to Detroit Tigers 3-2
With the Yankees beating Texas, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays needed this one against the struggling Detroit Tigers, but couldn’t get to Justin Verlander (13-7) and they stay a game and a half back in the American League Eastern Division. With Boston also beating up on the Toronto Blue Jays, they also lost a game off their lead in the Wild Card standings and are now just three and a half games up on the Red Sox.
Matt Garza (11-7) struggled against the Tigers, giving up three runs on seven hits, including a tie-breaking two-run homer in the sixth inning to take the loss. In his previous two starts, he threw eight scoreless innings at Toronto and gave up four runs in a stinging loss to New York. In the game before that, he no-hit this same Detroit Tigers for his 11th win and was look for something more like that on Wednesday night. “I pitched well, but I lost, so it is hard to feel like it was a good outing,” Garza said.
Garza retired the side in order in the first inning, and appeared just as dominant as he did in his no-hitter against Detroit on July 26th. But then he gave up a couple of hits in each of the next two innings, allowing the Tigers to take a 1-0 lead. After that he settled down until the sixth inning when he gave up a single, a two-run home run to Ryan Raburn, then a walk to catcher Gerald Laird. He pitched to one more batter before being lifted from the game behind 3-1.
The Tigers needed all those runs as they didn’t score again in the game, but Tampa Bay mounted a challenge in the ninth. B.J. Upton lead off with a walk, then stole a base and advanced on an error. John Jaso cam in as a pinch-hitter and hit a grounder to first for the second out, allowing Upton to score. But Dan Johnson hit a fly ball to right field to end the game.
Tampa Bay started the three-game series on Monday trailing the AL East-leading Yankees by 2 1/2 games. With a couple of wins, the Rays made up ground on New York, but that didn’t satisfy Joe Maddon. “Our standards are set high,” Maddon said. “We are aiming to win a division and go deep into the postseason, so we want to win every game.”
That's especially true against clubs that are struggling. It was just the seventh time the Tigers have won since the All-Star break a month ago.
Tampa bay now go into a three game series against the hottest team in the majors right now, the Baltimore Orioles. They follow that with three games against a playoff-bound Texas Rangers.
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