Game Recap #20 Detroit Tigers @ Tampa Bay Rays

As our trip to all the ballparks hits the two-thirds completion mark, we are in St. Petersburg, Florida, where the always-competitive Tampa Bay Rays host a fairly equal opponent in the Detroit Tigers. Both teams may not have extensive postseason success rates, but they have come to the forefront of competition, leading me to believe this would be a close game. Veteran pitchers Max Scherzer for Detroit and James Shields for Tampa Bay are more than able to keep things close in a game, and they did just that through the first two innings, although Shields had a bit more trouble with it. These early struggles showed up in the third inning, where he game up an Austin Jackson single and a bunt single by Quintin Berry before recording an out. He was able to get a double play out of Miguel Cabrera, but a Prince Fielder single knocked Berry into scoring position, and score he did on a Delmon Young single. Fielder then came home on a double from Alex Avila, trying to recapture some of last season's magic as an everyday catcher. Shields' issues continued into the fourth inning as he let Brennan Boesch get aboard and then over to third base on a Jackson single. Boesch later scored when Berry reached on an error, and it could have been worse had Jackson not been out at home after a Cabrera single. Tampa Bay finally got to Scherzer in the fifth inning after Brooks Conrad got aboard with a double, easily setting up the run on an Elliot Johnson single. Detroit worked to get it back in the sixth inning, where Jackson singled and then advanced to second when Shields erred in throwing the ball, which is where he scored from on a Cabrera single. It wasn't until the seventh inning when Scherzer was pulled from the game for Phil Coke, leaving with a line of six innings pitched, four hits and two walks yielding two earned runs, paired with seven strikeouts. The second run came after Scherzer walked Jeff Keppinger, and Coke gave up a double to Conrad, which combined with a fielding error from Berry to get Keppinger home. Joaquin Benoit worked the eighth for the Tigers. Earlier in that inning, Shields was pulled after 7 2/3 innings, fourteen hits and a walk producing four earned runs, and six strikeouts. Jake McGee finished off the eighth and handed the ball to Wade Davis for the ninth, where he gave up a solo home run to Cabrera, making it 5-3. Jose Valverde made sure this was the final, pitching a perfect ninth for the save, preserving the win for Scherzer, and handing the loss to Shields. Interestingly enough, there were no stolen bases here, despite the Rays having somewhat of a speedy lineup. With only ten games to go, can the home teams pull things closer to .500 or will we see a bunch of road victories in the home stretch?