Rays 3, Tigers 6: Cabrera and Scherzer Dominant in Victory over Rays

Taking a look at the box score of the seven hitters Tigers hitters not named Miguel Cabrera or Prince Fielder would lead you to believe the Rays won tonight's game. That belief would be wrong. Cabrera and Fielder went a combined 6-7 with a walk, three home runs, and five RBI. The rest of the Tigers lineup? 2-25 with two walks. The duo would prove to be more than the Rays could handle, though, boosting the Tigers to a 6-3 victory.

A bigger story than the loss is the health of Evan Longoria. He was removed from the game before the third inning after grounding out. He irritated the plantar fasciitis in his right foot he's been dealing with for the last few weeks. The issue has forced him to DH more this season, which takes his Gold Glove defense off the field. As Rays fans know, Longoria has been injured during the last two seasons, playing in just 74 games year. He was sent home in a boot and will miss at least Saturday and Sunday's games, according to Joe Maddon.

Even though he took his first loss and gave up his first earned runs of the season, Alex Colome pitched relatively well. It was nice to see the successes of Cabrera didn't affect Colome too much. It's possible for a young pitcher to lose composure after falling behind early in a game, but he kept his cool and completed six innings, avoiding taxing the bullpen. He was especially impressive in the top of sixth inning after allowing a single and walk to Cabrera and Fielder with one out. He used his fastball to strikeout Victor Martinez and got Jhonny Peralta to fly out to center to end the threat. After a perfect seventh inning from Jamey Wright, Kyle Farnsworth and Cesar Ramos combined to allow two runs in the eighth. Cabrera doubled to to deep center field off Farnsworth, and Fielder homered off the very last catwalk in right field -- it likely would have hit off the back wall -- to give the Tigers a healthy cushion.

The Rays offense was powered by Wil Myers. He was the only Ray with multiple hits, cutting the lead to two in the fifth inning with a long blast to left field. He'd single and score on a Luke Scott double in the seventh inning to close the gap to one, but that would be as close as the Rays would get. Ben Zobrist put the Rays on the board first after homering in the fourth inning for the Rays first hit. Zobrist hasn't shown much power this season, though still has his usual stellar on base percentage. Anything that sparks more thunder in his bat is welcome. Tigers starter Max Scherzer wasn't as dominant tonight as he was June sixth against the Rays when he allowed just one run in seven innings while striking out nine, but he was good enough. He struck out nine again, walked just one, and allowed one men in scoring position. The win pushed his record to 12-0, the first time since Roger Clemens in 1986 a pitcher has reached that mark