The Rays had their chance to take control of this one in the fourth inning with the bases loaded and just one out. Jackson Jobe, the Tigers’ starter, was floundering having allowed three hits, a walk and a run in the first five batters. Nonetheless, the Rays were able to muster just the one run as Richie Palacios was unable to put the ball in play, instead striking out looking, and Taylor Walls grounded to first to officially end the threat. Jobe escaped allowing just the one run; the first and only
run the Rays would score the entire game.
And that is pretty much the storyline for this one. The pitching was fine. Not great, but certainly serviceable. If nothing else, Legumina and Seymour combining for all eight innings gives Kevin Cash a lot of options for the series finale on Wednesday. The bats were quiet. Four of their five hits came in the first four innings and their last hit came in the eighth. They tallied four singles and a double.
Legumina opened this one and tossed 2.1 solid innings of work allowing just one hit while punching out a pair. Seymour followed and threw the final 5.2 innings. He allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits. He punched out five and walked none.
After the Rays failed to break this one open in the fourth, the Tigers jumped out to a three-run lead in the fifth and never looked back. Torkelson singled to start the inning and later scored on a two-run shot off the bat of rookie Max Clark. The final run scored on a 2-out error.
Then, in the seventh inning the Tigers tacked on another run to make it a 4-1 lead. After allowing a leadoff triple to Javier Baez, Seymour was a pitch away from escaping the threat, but allowed a 2-out RBI-single to Hao-Yu Lee.
Opposite the Rays duo on the mount, the Tigers pieced this one together with five arms after Jobe couldn’t escape the fifth. Jansen earned the save, his 17th of the year.
For those of you scoreboard watching, the Yankees lost a back-and-forth affair with Houston. With the loss, the Rays maintained their 3.5 game advantage in the East. Freddy Peralta will take the mound tomorrow afternoon opposite Troy Melton.
