St. Petersburg, Fla. – There was a somewhat cheeky item in the game notes Tuesday. Under the tag line, “June Slug,” it was noted the Tigers’ .821 slugging percentage led all of baseball and their 1.239 OPS led the American League – for the month of June.
Was it cheeky or portentous?
The sample size doubled Tuesday, the second day of June, but so did the production.
The Tigers hit lefty Steven Matz with a barrage of extra-base damage in the first two innings and rode it to their second straight win, 8-0 over the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.
The win snaps a streak of eight straight series losses. And it was their first road series win since taking two of three in San Diego in the first week of the season.
Gleyber Torres, in his first game back off the injured list, worked a 3-1 count to start the game and then slammed a 433-foot home run in the Daiquiri Deck above cutout in left-center field.
Matt Vierling followed with a triple and Dillon Dingler plated him with a sacrifice fly.
The exit velocities on those three rockets, in order, 106.3 mph, 102 mph ad 102.1 mph.
In the second inning, Spencer Torkelson doubled and Wenceel Perez launched a 404-foot homer. After doubles by Zack Short and Vierling, the Tigers were up 5-0 and Matz was out of the game.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 8, Rays 0
The Tigers put nine balls in play off Matz with an average exit velocity of 99.8 mph, six extra-base hits.
June slug, indeed.
Torkelson finished with a double, single, walk and scored two runs. Perez had two hits, knocked in two and scored two. Short, hitting in the No. 9 spot, had a double, single and a sacrifice fly. And Vierling knocked in two with two hits and a sacrifice fly.
Riley Greene homered for the second straight game. He curled one inside the right-field foul pole off lefty Ian Seymour leading off the seventh inning. It was his sixth homer.
The Tigers hit eight home runs in the first two games of this series. They had 51 total in the first 60 games.
They even forced the Rays to use a position player to pitch the ninth inning, shortstop Ben Williamson.
Unlike Monday, there was no late drama in this one.
Jack Flaherty, after starting the season with seven straight pitcher losses, now has a win on his ledger. And it was well-earned.
He had to pitch out of some trouble, but he limited the Rays to five hits in five scoreless innings with six strikeouts.
He put the first two runners on in the third, the last two hitters in the Rays’ order, but set down the top three hitters to escape the mess, finishing off Jonathan Aranda with a nasty, 2-2 knuckle-curve, leaving the dangerous Yandy Diaz on the on-deck circle.
In the fourth inning, he struck out Jose Mesa, Jr., with another knuckle-curve, and then froze Hunter Feduccia with a low-rail, 96-mph four-seamer to strand runners at second and third.
The Tigers had to empty the bullpen to secure the 10-9 win Monday. Lefty Enmanuel De Jesus was the only reliever not used. Thus, he was called on to take it home. And he did so, impressively, dispatching all 11 hitters he faced and earning a four-inning save.
This story will be updated.
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Tigers outslug Rays again; Flaherty posts first win after 0-7 start
Reporting by Chris McCosky, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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