Rays 4, Tigers 2: Tigers offense goes quiet outside of a James McCann home run

This hasn’t been a kind series to the Tigers, who were swept by the Rays today to close the three-game set.

The Tigers just seem to have been incapable of holding onto a lead at all, or turning one into a win. In today’s game Jordan Zimmermann had a serviceable (if heavily hit) outing, he just forgot to pay off the home run gods ahead of time. Home runs, in fact, were the order of the day for both teams.

Zimmermann’s final line for the day was 6.2 IP, 11 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HR on 105 pitches. Three of the Rays runs came off a C.J. Cron home run in the seventh, which also scored Kevin Kiermaier and Matt Duffy. This seems to be a direct result of the Tigers trying to milk their starters for as many innings as possible and Cron just took advantage of a Zimmermann slider, giving the Rays the final lead they’d need in the game.

Up to that point the Tigers were riding high off a two-run James McCann homer that also score ex-Ray Mikie Mahtook. (The other Rays run of the game came off a solo shot from Kiermaier in the third).

Alex Wilson (no hits) and Daniel Stumpf (one hit) came on in relief and kept the damage from getting any worse.

All in all not a great day or series for the Tigers.