A missed opportunity.

Rays 3, Tigers 1

While we didn’t see the Rick Porcello (4-6, 86.1 IP, 5.21 ERA, 3.65 FIP, 1.5 WAR) who dominated hitters from May to mid June, we saw an effective Porcello who went 6 innings and gave the Tigers a chance to win. He allowed 3 runs, but only a couple of well hit balls to go with 2 BB and 3 K. Miguel Cabrera crushed a 4th inning HR into the Ray Tank, but the Tigers wouldn’t get any more despite loading the bases with no outs in the 7th. After taking the opener so cleanly on Friday, losing the last two so closely stings, but probably not as much as Ben Zobrist’s right shoulder after Leyland ordered Porcello to hit him in the first inning because Jim Leyland thinks baseball needs more violence. Hopefully, MLB will suspend Leyland, but the odds of that seem quite slim because MLB tends to support this kind of childish behavior. It’ll be a quick turnaround after the flight to Toronto as the Tigers will face the Jays Monday at 1pm with Jose Alvarez (1-1, 16.2 IP, 3.78 ERA, 5.70 FIP, -0.1 WAR) hopefully making his last start for a while with Sanchez’s return looming.

The Moment: Cabrera sends one into the Rays Tank in RCF, just the second player to ever do so.