The offense of the Tampa Bay Rays continued its hots week Thursday night in a victory in Detroit.
This time, the Rays scored seven runs on eight hits to highlight a 7-5 win over the Tigers. Steven Souza Jr. and Steve Pearce each had home runs for the Rays, but the biggest hit was a bases-loaded triple by Kevin Kiermaier in the sixth.
With the win, the Rays improve to 20-19 on the season.
The Rays led 3-0 after one inning, but the Tigers tied the game in the third. Kiermaier’s first triple of the year broke the tie, however, and led to the Rays’ victory. Kiermaier was second in the league last year with 12 triples.
“Credit to our lineup, top to bottom tonight, for getting guys on and coming up with those big hits,” said Kiermaier.
Pitcher Matt Andriese went 5 1/3 innings to go 3-0 on the season. Alex Colome had his 11th save. The Rays made two errors, however, which left manager Kevin Cash displeased.
“That was interesting, to say the least,” Cash said. “Generally, we play pretty crisp games defensively. Tonight was not one of those games. Good thing the bats piled on some runs for us because we had a couple mental lapses out there.”
The Rays have now scored 38 runs in four games this week. Drew Smyly will start on the mound for Tampa Bay tonight.
