Wednesday, 4 a.m.
The Tampa Bay Rays were after a winning record.
The Detroit Tigerzwere after far better rewards.
The Tigers’ Tarik Skubal, one of the leading Cy Young contenders in the American League, won his 18th game of the season to inch even closer to the award. And the Tigers kept pace in the AL Central their playoff chase with a 2-1 win over the Rays.
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Skobul is 6-0 in his last nine starts. The Rays’ Ryan Pepiot went six innings and gave up just three hits. Still, he look the loss to fall to 8-7.
Once again, the Rays’ problems were on offense. The Rays managed just three hits — two off of Skubal,who struck out seven.
Brandon Lowe hit his 21st home run of the season in the 9th inning to avoid the shutout. Before that, the Rays’ only hits were a single by Joe Caballero and one by Ben Rortvedt.
The two runs Detroit scored came on a ground rule double by Wenceel Perez with two out in the fifth. He drove in Trey Sweeney, who had walked, and Jake Rogers, who had singled.
The Rays, now 78-79 on the season, play Detroit again today at 6:50 p.m. Zack Littell will start for the Rays against Keider Montero.