DETROIT (AP) — Logan Morrison homered twice and Steven Souza Jr. hit his first career grand slam as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Detroit Tigers 9-1 Sunday to split a four-game series.
Derek Norris and Evan Longoria also homered for the Rays, who won five of seven in the season series with Detroit.
Jake Faria (3-0) allowed one run, six hits and a walk in seven innings. He struck out a career-high nine. Faria is the second starting pitcher in Rays history to win his first three career games, joining Jeremy Hellickson.
Buck Farmer (2-1) allowed seven runs in 2 1/3 innings, and has now allowed 13 runs in 4 2/3 innings over his last two starts. Farmer gave up five hits, including three homers, walked one batter and hit another.
Morrison gave the Rays a 2-0 lead in the first with his 20th homer of the season, a drive off the railing above the right-field fence. There was momentary confusion, as the ball bounced back onto the field, leading Morrison to stop at second while Farmer chased down what he thought was a wild throw from the outfield.
Justin Upton’s RBI single made it 2-1 in the bottom of the first, but Norris restored the two-run lead with a homer in the third.
Later in the inning, the Rays loaded the bases with a single, a hit batter and a walk before Souza made it 7-1 with his first grand slam.
Longoria and Morrison gave the Rays an eight-run lead with back-to-back homers off Chad Bell in the seventh. It was Tampa’s ninth set of back-to-back homers this season, tying a franchise record set in 2007 and tied in 2008.
The first pitch was delayed 31 minutes by rain.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rays: C Wilson Ramos (ACL tear) caught six innings for Triple-A Durham on Saturday, marking the first time he had caught on back-to-back days in his rehab process. He had a scheduled day off on Sunday.
Tigers: DH Victor Martinez (irregular heartbeat) is expected to stay away from any activity while the Tigers are on a seven-game road trip. Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said if his heart rate remains normal, Martinez could resume light cardio activity in about a week.
SIX-MAN ROTATION
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus announced before the game that Anibal Sanchez will return from Triple-A Toledo and start Monday’s game in Seattle, with the Tigers moving temporarily to a six-man rotation. Sanchez posted a 9.00 ERA in 11 games as a long reliever before voluntarily going to Toledo to work on transitioning back to a starting role. In four starts with the Mud Hens, he went 0-2 with a 4.60 ERA.
.neFileBlock {
margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
padding-bottom: 5px;
padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
font-size: 85%;
}
