A 1st inning Miguel Cabrera home run is probably the worst way to start a game against the Detroit Tigers. That happened to the Rays on Tuesday night, but it didn’t have a bad ending at all. That solo shot was the only run that Matt Andriese would surrender in 6 solid innings of work. Tim Beckham was the hero on offense. The shortstop homered in the 3rd inning to give the Rays the lead and scored another run in the 7th in the 5-1 victory.
The big bats for the Tigers made an early appearance in this one.The birthday boy, Miguel Cabrera sent an absolute rocket shot to center field to put Detroit on top in the 1st inning. The Rays came back with a long ball of their own in the 3rd inning. Tim Beckham’s 2nd of the year gave the Rays a 2-1 lead after Shane Peterson singled to lead off the inning.
The pitchers settled in after that and neither team scored again until the 6th inning. Derek Norris came through big with a 2-out single that scored Brad Miller from 3rd to double the Rays’ lead. The Rays found themselves in a sticky situation in the 7th. Matt Andriese’s night would end after walking Victor Martinez and then allowing a single to Justin Upton to start the inning. The Rays bullpen then came in and did their job. Danny Farquhar got Tyler Collins to ground into a fielder’s choice and Alex Avila to strikeout. Tommy Hunter then came in and got JaCoby Jones to fly out to left to end the inning. When all was said and done Andriese went 6 innings and only allowed the 1-run on the Cabrera homerun and struck out 5.
The Rays then added some insurance in the bottom half of the inning. Beckham got on with a single and then was driven all the way home by a Kevin Kiermaier double to the gap in left-center field. Kiermaier was then driven in by a Brad Miller single to extend the lead to 4. Jumbo Diaz pitched a scoreless 8th and Alex Colome came in and finished off the victory for the Rays.
The Rays will be right back in action tomorrow night. The 1st pitch is scheduled for 7:10 again with Chris Archer heading to the bump for the Rays to face Jordan Zimmerman of the Tigers. Pregame coverage kicks off right at 6 pm on WDAE with The Inside Pitch.