After finishing up the last road trip with a 4-5 record, the Tampa Bay rays started the final homestand of the 2021 season in the right fashion, as Yandy Diaz and Mike Zunino both homered, and Dietrich Enns earned his second win with another four inning outing, leading to a 5-2 win over the Detroit Tigers Thursday.
The Rays only needed to see one pitch in order to take the lead, as Diaz led off the bottom of the first inning by taking Tyler Alexander’s very first offering and slamming it into the seats in left-center for his 11th home run of the season, and his first regular season leadoff homer since 2019.
Manuel Margot followed with a walk, and Alexander then hit Nelson Cruz with a pitch. A passed ball moved both runners up a base, and Randy Arozarena made it 2-0 by driving in Margot with a sacrifice fly.
Enns took over to start the second after Louis Head worked a perfect top of the first, and would put up scoreless innings until the fifth, when Nike Goodrum cut the lead in half with a solo homer, his seventh of the year.
But the Rays got that run back in the bottom of the fifth off Alexander, with Kiermaier serving a single to left, taking second on a groundout by Diaz, then breaking for third as Margot reached on an infield single and scoring on the late throw.
Alexander’s night would end with two out in the sixth after he walked Joey Wendle, and Mike Zunino greeted reliever Drew Carlton by blasting a two-run homer, his 31st of the year to make it 5-1.
Enns (2-0) would be followed by a scoreless inning each from J.P. Feyereisen, Pete Fairbanks, and Adam Conley, while JT Chargois gave up a solo homer to Jeimer Candelario with two outs in the ninth, but then struck out Eric Haase to end the game.
With the win, Tampa Bay extends their lead in the American League East to 8 1/2 games over Toronto and Boston, who were both idle Thursday, and cut the magic number to win the division to eight.
Luis Patino (4-3, 4.62 ERA) will get the start Friday as Tampa Bay will look for a second straight win. He will take on Casey Mize (7-8, 3.66 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10.
Steve Carney is the founder and publisher of St. Pete Nine. One of the people most associated with baseball coverage in Tampa Bay, he spent 13 seasons covering the Rays for flagship radio station WDAE, first as producer of Rays Radio broadcasts, then as beat reporter beginning in 2011. He likes new analytics and aged bourbon, and is the owner of one of the ugliest knuckleballs ever witnessed by baseball scouts.
