St. Petersburg, Fla. — The Tigers were three outs away from evening the series.
Up 4-1 and with closer Gregory Soto on the mound, the Tampa Bay Rays stormed back to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth and then walked it off in the 10th, beating the Tigers 7-4 Friday night at Tropicana Field.
Brett Phillips belted a three-run home run off reliever Byran Garcia to end it and the Rays lowered their magic number to clinch the American League East to 7.
The first batter Soto faced in the ninth, Manuel Margot, lined one (99.9 mph exit velocity) a shot right back at him. It appeared to hit Soto high in his pitching hand. He stayed in the game but he walked Mejia and gave up a single to Brandon Lowe to load the bases.
Michael Fulmer, who heated up in a hurry was summoned. But he gave up a two-run single to pinch-hitter Yandy Diaz. After a wild pitch put the tying run at third, Randy Arozarena’s sacrifice fly tied the game.
Austin Meadows hit a high pop fly that third baseman Jeimer Candelario lost in the white roof. But he alertly grabbed it on a bounce and got the force out at second.
The Tigers, though, let the potential winning run get to second base without a play. Meadows stole the bag uncontested. Shortstop Niko Goodrum appeared to be late covering the bag.
But Fulmer struck out Joey Wendle to send the game to the 10th.
It had been all Tigers before that.
Akil Baddoo blasted the third pitch of the game, a 95-mph fastball from right-hander Luis Patino, into the seats in right field. It was his first ever lead-off home run.
Patino, the Rays’ hard-throwing rookie, had been mostly overpowering in his previous seven home starts, allowing 11 runs in 34 innings. But the Tigers put good swings on him.
After Baddoo’s homer, his 13th of the season, Harold Castro and Niko Goodrum both doubled in a two-run second inning. Castro’s sacrifice fly in the third scored the fourth run.
Robbie Grossman, who walked to start the rally, challenged the arm of left fielder Arozarena’s arm on a medium depth fly ball. The throw was on the mark, but Grossman just beat the tag, as confirmed by video review.
Miguel Cabrera had a pair of hits of Patino, raising his career total to 2,978. The first one was an infield single and the second one was a bullet to left, 110 mph exit velocity off his bat.
Patino settled in and kept the Tigers off the board through the sixth. In fact, they managed one hit after the third. They had two other base runners, both reached on errors and both were erased by double-plays.
But it looked like the Tigers were going to make those four runs stand up.
It started with rookie Casey Mize.
Last Saturday at Comerica Park, the Rays cost Mize an inning. He was scheduled to pitch at least three, but they jumped him for three runs on a pair of triples in the second. His pitch-count was at 48 and he was done early.
Mize made sure that didn’t happen Friday night at the Trop, although the way they attacked him in the first inning, it looked like a repeat. The first five hitters hit him hard. But after a double by Arozarena, the only right-handed hitting in the Rays’ lineup, put runners on second and third with one out, Mize limited the damage to a run on a line-drive sacrifice fly by Austin Meadows.
He struck out Kevin Kiermaier with an elevated four-seam fastball (94 mph) with one out and a runner at third in the second inning. Then ended the inning by getting Francisco Mejia to pop out.
Mize ended up allowing just the one run on three hits and a walk with three strikeouts, getting through three innings in 53 pitches.
Lefty Derek Holland got the next five outs, leaving after he was hit in the backside by a liner from Ji-Man Choi with two outs in the fifth. Holland wasn’t hurt and pleaded to stay in the game, but manager AJ Hinch wanted to bring right-hander Drew Hutchison in to face right-handed hitting Arozarena.
Holland has had a resurgent September. He’s pitched 9.1 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
Hutchison walked three but he didn’t give up a hit and kept the Rays off the board through the sixth inning.
Alex Lange and Kyle Funkhouser each pitched hitless innings, getting the ball to Soto.
Twitter: @cmccosky