Rays visit Tigers after long win streak ends (Apr 29, 2018)
DETROIT -- The Tampa Bay Rays will try to begin a new winning streak on Monday night when they visit the Detroit Tigers for the opener of a three-game series.
The Rays' eight-game winning streak ended Sunday with a 4-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox despite Denard Span's great catch and two-run homer.
The Tigers concluded a six-game road trip by losing two of three in Pittsburgh and the same in Baltimore. The Orioles defeated the Tigers 5-3 on Sunday.
Tigers first baseman Miguel Cabrera left after four innings with left biceps spasms. He was seen grabbing and rubbing the arm after his third-inning at-bat.
Left-hander Daniel Norris, who started for Detroit, had to be removed after 2 2/3 innings with left groin tightness.
"Left biceps spams, left groin tightness," Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said of the injuries. "We'll let you know in a couple days where they're at and where it goes. That's all I have."
Norris worked several relief innings on April 25 and has bounced between the bullpen and the rotation as the Tigers try to figure out where he fits best. He has an option remaining, but the Tigers believe he belongs in the majors.
"He wasn't following through on his pitches," Gardenhire said. "I told him, 'You're not following through. You're not finishing your pitches, I'm not going to let you hurt your arm.' That's my job."
Right-hander Jake Faria (2-1, 3.78 ERA) will face Detroit for the second time in his career on Monday. Faria beat the Tigers last season, allowing one run and six hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out nine in that 2017 game.
Detroit starts right-hander Jordan Zimmermann (0-4, 9.87 ERA), who is still looking for his first win of 2018 in four decisions. He hasn't pitched against the Rays this year and only pitched against them once last season (no decision).
Zimmermann is 1-1 with a 4.55 ERA in five career starts against the Rays.
Gardenhire has suggested Zimmermann needs to get some separation on his pitches in terms of velocity, because they might be all blending together.
The Rays optioned right-hander Ryan Yarbrough to Triple-A Durham after the eighth game in Tampa Bay's streak on Saturday. He pitched four strong relief innings, but management thought a taxed bullpen could use some help and recalled right-hander Chih-Wei Hu, who was scratched from a start for Durham on Saturday.
"Challenging, simply because Yarbrough comes in, gets his first win," Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said Sunday. "He's done some good things for us. (Saturday) was a lot of good things. To keep the lead, he provided some length. That's the way it works. We've got to get him down there to keep him stretched out.
"We've got a bunch of off days coming up and we need pitching. It kind of made the most sense to option him out, get Chih-Wei back up. He was scheduled to start yesterday and now he can provide a lot of length."
With Durham, Hu made three starts, going 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA, striking out 16 in 13 innings.
"I tried to give him the message that this (demotion) wasn't performance related," Cash said. "But it's part of the game, it's the way it works, and we've got to make decisions to make sure that we're doing everything we can to win the next day and keep guys healthy.
"The last thing we ever want to do is get anybody hurt because we're overworking them too much. That's what went into the decision."
Cash also said Sunday that he does not expect to have to put catcher Wilson Ramos on the disabled list. Ramos has a tight groin muscle.
"In an emergency, he could play (Sunday). We think we caught it just in time," Cash said. "Wilson's been battling a little bit, he got beat up yesterday, but hopefully he doesn't have too much of a groin issue. He doesn't run that fast. So we should be able to protect it."
Gardenhire said of the Tigers: "We had a losing road trip (2-4), go home, play three games and go back on the road. It's not going to get easier.
"We don't have any days off so we've got to battle through these things. The bullpen's depleted, to say the least. We've got to find a way, that's all we can do."
