DETROIT, Mich. — Brandon Lowe was due up third in the eighth inning for Tampa Bay, and he watched closely as the two batters in front of him, Roman Quinn and Taylor Walls, drew a pair of walks from Detroit reliever Joe Jimenez.
So when he finally stepped into the batter's box with the Rays trailing by a run, Lowe felt like he had Jimenez figured out pretty well after seeing 11 pitches to Quinn and Walls. He ripped a double to right, and they both scored, with Walls sliding head-first into home to give the Rays the lead. Lowe would score next on an Isaac Paredes single, and the Rays won 5-3.
"To see Roman take the at-bat that he did, saw a lot of pitches and battles his butt off, and Wallsy did the same thing, he saw a lot. I got to see enough pitches to see how the guy on the mound might attack me, and I had a good game plan,'' said Lowe, who drove in three runs for the second straight night.
“We're at a high now, and we feel good as a team. We're taking our team at-bats and we're letting the numbers kind of take care of themselves.”
The Rays drew a team-record 13 walks on the night, but struggled to capitalize on all the gifts until Lowe's heroics. They got 10 walks through seven, but only had two runs to show for it.
They fell behind early, with the Tigers getting a run in the first and two in the second off of Tampa Bay starter Corey Kluber. But he locked down from there, retiring 13 of 14 batters and giving the Rays a chance to get back in the game.
They got one run back after two walks and a Paredes double in the fifth and made it 3-2 in the sixth after consecutive singles from Quinn, Walls and Lowe.
Kluber went six innings, and handed things over to the bullpen. Jalen Beeks, Jason Adam and Colin Poche took it from there, pitching three scoreless innings to end it. It wasn't easy though, with Beeks and Poche each giving up a hit and a walk in the seventh and ninth innings, respectively.
Poche got Riley Greene to strike out with two men on to end the game, picking up his team-leading seventh save of the season. Beeks (2-1) got the win.
It was the third-straight victory for the Rays, who are now No. 5 in the American League playoffs pecking order after Seattle lost on Friday night. They are two games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the wild-card race and two games ahead of Cleveland.
The two teams get together again on Saturday, with Tampa Bay ace Shane McClanahan taking the mound. He's 10-4 with a 2.07 ERA, but he have up a career high five runs in a loss to Cleveland last Sunday. Garrett Hill (1-3, 5.88 ERA) will start for the Tigers.
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