Cash and Co continue their hot start at home with three-game sweep of Detroit.
ST. PETERSBURG, FL – With Jake Odorizzi on the 10-day DL, the Rays turned to Erasmo Ramirez for the spot start against the Tigers on Thursday afternoon. It’d been over a year since Erasmo’s last regular season start.
Ian Kinsler would hit his 41st lead off home run to welcome Erasmo back to the rotation. The Tigers would take a quick 1-0 lead.
A quick top half of the second for Erasmo would lead to quite the bottom half for the Rays.
It’s been a nightmare for Tigers defenders this entire series, especially in last night’s loss. It would be much of the same in the second inning. With two outs and two aboard, Steven Souza Jr would hit a two-RBI triple that was badly mis-played by Tyler Collins. The Tigers right fielder had also mis-played a double off the right field wall in the first – also off the bat of Souza.
Kevin Kiermaier would single home Peter Bourjos not long after and the Rays would take a 4-1 lead into the third.
Erasmo would dominate the Tigers after the lead off home run in the first. He’d pitch five innings of two-hit baseball striking out five.
Tim Beckham would give the Rays a little insurance with an RBI in the bottom of the fifth. Previous to his ground out, Daniel Norris and Alex Avila got tied up behind home plate both trying to pull in a pop foul. Beckham got another chance…and he cashed in with an RBI.
Chase Whitley would get the call to take over for Erasmo in the sixth.
KK with a “MOAB” of his own!
Kiermaier would deposit a solo home run over the straight away center field wall in the bottom of the seventh. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, who’d been vocal after the loss Wednesday night about the playing conditions at the Trop, decided to challenge if Kiermaier had missed touching second base during his home run trot.
The review took less than a minute. The foot clearly touched the bag. Home run stands.
They weren’t done yet!
With Longoria the DH today, Daniel Robertson got the start at third base. In the bottom of the eighth he’d take advantage of the first pitch he saw and deposited it into the left field seats for his first big league home run. The Rays would also extend their lead to 7-1 over Detroit.
There it is! @D_Robertson28 has his first career home run!
Rays lead, 7-1. #RaysUp pic.twitter.com/N31tBiyzhl
— Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) April 20, 2017
As if he hadn’t done enough damage in the series already – Souza Jr decided to get in on the home run action. His third dinger of the season was deposited into the Ducky’s 162 Landing with two outs in the eighth. He’d finish the game just a single shy of the cycle.
Tommy Hunter would come in and pitch a zero in the ninth for the sweep.
“Apparently it’s a hard thing to do,” Souza joked about falling short of his first cycle. “That’s what they say. Stats show, over time, it’s a hard thing.”
NOTABLES:
- First time the Rays have swept the Tigers since 2010.
- Kevin Kiermaier has had multiple hits in four of his last five games (10-for-20 in that stretch).
NEXT UP:
- The Houston Astros come to town for the final three games of the home stand.
- Alex Cobb (1-1, 4.50) goes for the Rays against Mike Fiers (0-1, 5.40) of the Astros.
