Tigers sweep Rays to put miserable May in rearview

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on Jun 3, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Don’t let the Tigers get hot.

After grinding through a miserable 6-22 month of May that cratered with three straight losses to the White Sox in Chicago, they came into Tropicana Field and swept a three-game series from the American League East-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

The Tigers capped it with a workmanlike 7-2 win in the finale Wednesday. They scored 25 runs and hit 10 home runs in the series. And the offense stayed hot against one of the hottest pitchers in the league.

Rays starter Nick Martinez hadn’t given up more than two runs in any of his 11 previous starts this season and came in with a 1.62 ERA.

The Tigers were unfazed. They collected three runs in the first three innings and proceeded to knock him out of the game after four innings, leaving him with a muddy six-spot on his previously pristine ledger.

And, as has been the case in this series, Dillon Dingler threw the most dirt. He hit his third home run and produced his second four-RBI game.

He singled home Gleyber Torres in the first inning. Torres, who homered in his first at-bat Tuesday, started the game with a first-pitch double. Then Dingler stuck the dagger in the fourth with a two-out, three-run home run, a bullet into the seats in left.

Dingler leads American League catchers with 14 homers and 43 RBIs.

Jake Rogers homered off Martinez in the second inning, breaking a drought of 107 homer-less plate appearances dating to July 20, 2025.

He helped set up the three-run fourth inning, too, by dropping a sacrifice bunt, making him one of five Tigers in the last 15 years to hit a homer and have a sac bunt in the same game. The others: Alex Avila and Don Kelly in 2011, Andy Dirks in 2012 and Akil Baddoo in 2023.

The run support was appreciated by right-hander Troy Melton, who got right quickly after a wobbly start and dominated the Rays’ hitters for eight innings.

He gave up single runs in each of the first two innings, including a solo homer to Cedric Mullins. He was falling behind hitters, especially in the first inning when he gave up an RBI single to Yandy Diaz after a single and walk.

But something clicked. After walking Jonathan Aranda to lead off the third inning, he got Diaz to hit into a double play and then set down the next 17 hitters, completing eight full innings for the first time in his career.

His efficiency was impressive. He needed just 24 pitches to traverse the fourth through the seventh innings. He faced the minimum through the final five innings.

He struck out five and got nine ground-ball outs. The 22 balls put in play by the Rays had an average exit velocity of 86.9 mph.

It was his cutter that seemed to calm him down and get him back in the zone. He wasn’t landing his four-seam fastball early or his splitter. He survived the first inning with his slider but once he started mixing the cutter, everything fell into place.