Tigers Blow It In The 9th
The Detroit Tigers faced the Tampa Bay Rays, Wednesday evening, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Tampa Bay started Chris Archer as the pitcher to face the Tigers in the opening inning. Detroit was unable to score with Kinsler flying-out to right-field, Castellanos tripled to deep right, Cabrera struck-out swinging and Victor Martinez lined-out to left.
Tampa Bay came alive against Detroit’s starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann. Corey Dickerson and Kevin Kiermaier both scored making it a 2-0 game at the end of the 1st.
The 2nd inning was uneventful, with neither team scoring.
Kinsler was able to score in the 3rd on a hit by Miguel Cabrera making the score 2-1. Zimmermann managed to keep the Rays at bay, no pun intended, and unable to score.
Detroit failed to score in the 4th, but Tampa Bay came alive with Shane Peterson, Corey Dickerson and Kiermaier scoring making it 5-1.
In the 5th, Cabrera doubled to right-center, allowing Iglesias to score. Victor Martinez singled to left-field, bringing Kinsler and Cabrera home, making it 5-4 with Tampa Bay still leading. Zimmermann came to the mound and cooled the Rays bats, striking them out 1-2-3.
Danny Farquhar took up the pitching duties for Tampa Bay at the beginning of the 6th inning. He managed to walk James McCann and hit Andrew Romine with a pitch. The Rays decided to relieve him of his duties and brought Jumbo Diaz to the mound. Diaz walked Iglesias and then Kinsler, loading the bases. Things were getting tense and much more so when he threw a pitch to Castellanos who tripled to deep center and cleared the bases making it a 7-5 game bringing the Tigers into the lead. This convinced Tampa Bay to bring in Austin Pruitt to relieve Diaz. He promptly struck out Martinez. Zimmermann returned to the mound at the bottom of the 6th and managed to keep the Rays from scoring.
Pruitt brought things back into focus, in the 7th, by striking-out the Tigers 1-2-3. Alex Wilson relieved Zimmermann at the mound. The Rays started hitting off from the fresh pitcher, filling the bases with Kiermaier scoring, it was now a 7-6 game.
Detroit brought Justin Wilson into the game to manage the mound in the 8th. Neither team scored.
The Tigers failed to score in the 9th and there was trouble in the bottom of the inning when Tiger pitcher, Francisco Rodriguez, loaded the bases. In what should have been a game ending double play, Iglesias stumbled over the bag, threw a wild ball and Tampa Bay brought two players home ending the game 8-7.