Shane Baz's Quality Start Isn't Good Enough in Quiet 5-1 Loss to Tigers

DETROIT, Mich. — They call it a quality start when you pitch six innings or more and give up three runs or less. Tampa Bay starter Shane Baz did that Monday night, the six-and-three right on the button.

And it wasn't nearly good enough. Not when your bats don't show up in a quiet 5-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Baz did his part, pitching well outside a couple of damaging pitches, but the Rays mustered only five hits and never threatened. They fell to 49-42 on the season, while Detroit moved to 58-34, the best record in baseball.

They looked like the best team in baseball, too. They got timely hits, solid pitching and great defense to take the series opener. That's four straight losses in series openers for the Rays after reeling off 10 straight wins prior to that.

"They've got 50-something wins for a reason, you know,'' Rays right fielder Josh Lowe said. ''Their starter (Keider Montero) did a good job of keeping us off balance and their pen is pretty good too, coming at us with fastballs and good off-speed stuff. They did a good job of pushing and pulling us, and they had some good offense to back it up, too.''

Montero was called up from Triple-A Toledo to make Monday's start, and he hadn't pitched in the big leagues since June 19. You wouldn't have guessed it. He pitched six innings and allowed just one run on four hits. The Rays' only run came in the third inning, when Jonathan Aranda singled home Taylor Walls, who had walked, with two outs.

The Tigers got to Baz in the second inning. Catcher Dillon Dingler opened the inning with a double, but then Baz struck out Parker Meadows and Trey Sweeney. It looked like he was going to get No. 9 hitter Javier Baez too, getting a quick 0-2 count on the All-Star.

But Baz missed his spot and grooved a breaking ball right over the middle of the plate. Baez hit it 391-feet over the wall in left center to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

"You can't throw an 0-2 pitch over the plate like that. That was a mistake,'' Baz said. "I definitely want that one back for sure. You just can't do that.''

Baz got stuck in a similar situation in the fifth inning. Leadoff hitter Colt Keith, who had three hits on the night, opened the inning with a double, but then Baz once again got two quick strikeouts. (He had seven strikeouts on the night.)

But then Riley Greene — who is 7-for-14 against the Rays this season with four extra base hits and five RBIs in four games — dropped a soft single into right field and Keith scored easily to make it 3-1.

Paul Gervase pitched the final two innings for Tampa Bay, allowing solo home runs to Keith and Zach McKinstry in the seventh.

Baz is now 8-4 on the year, and that's his first loss since May 18, covering nine starts. He still leads the team in wins.

The Rays are now 3-7 in their last 10 games since June 26, and they've lost touch with the lead in the American League race. Ten days ago they were just half-game out. Now they are four back of the Toronto Blue Jays, who beat the Chicago White Sox 8-3 Monday night.

The Rays have two more games here in Detroit and then four in Boston before the All-Star break. They need to turn things around quickly.

"Every loss is frustrating, and we want to win every ballgame that we can,'' Lowe said. "I think we all understand what's going on. We've hit a little skid, and everybody's getting tired with their eyes on the All-Star break. But at the same time, we have six games left and we need to take care of business in these last six games.

"That's pretty much understood from all of us in here. We're going to show up every day and do our best to win some games. We need to grind through these last six.

Next up is another night game on Tuesday. Ryan Pepiot (6-6, 3.34) will make the start against veteran John Flaherty (5-9, 4.84 ERA). Pepiot has had good success during his career against Detroit, going 1-1 in four starts with a tidy 2.05 ERA. The Rays pounded Flaherty for eight runs in just two-plus innings during a 14-8 win on June 20 in Tampa.