Never in doubt.

Tigers 8, Rays 1

Max Scherzer (18 GS, 119.1 IP, 3.47 ERA, 2.88 FIP, 3.1 fWAR) certainly seems to be over his case of the hiccups from earlier in the year and is back to being Max Scherzer. On this night he gave the Tigers eight innings two hit, one walk, one run innings featuring seven strikeouts and almost no trouble after the first two batters. And Max didn’t really have to sweat after the first inning because the Tigers logged five runs during the first six batters on three home runs from Kinsler, Martinez, and Hunter. They chased Bedard early and tacked on additional runs as the night wore on, but it was a bit of a role reversal as people drove in Miggy rather than Miggy doing the driving. After sweeping the A’s, the Tigers got off to a great start against the recently hot Rays on Thursday and continued their resurgent ways. For all the run scoring and quality pitching, it was a pretty nondescript game after the first. Scherzer allowed just one baserunner and the Tigers had a comfortable lead the entire way. They’ll turn to Drew Smyly (13 GS, 75.2 IP, 3.57 ERA, 4.13 FIP, 0.9 fWAR) on Friday.

The Moment: The Tigers hit three home runs in the 1st to jump ahead 5-0.