![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Phil-Coke-tigers.jpg\")
<\/a>Tampa Bay avoided getting swept in its first interleague series of the season with a 4-0 win over Florida at Sun Life Stadium.\u00a0 The Rays are now 2-3 on the current road trip, but still own an Major League-best 15-8 record away from Tropicana Field.\u00a0 \u201cWe definitely were in a little skid there losing games,\u201d Rays catcher Kelly Shoppach stated.\u00a0 The club has tallied an impressive 12-6 record versus American League Central teams this year, which happens to be the best mark in the league.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is 19-17 under manager Joe Maddon against Detroit and hasn\u2019t lost a series in the Motor City since 2007.\u00a0 The team is 11-4 in its last 15 road games versus a left-handed starter.<\/p>\n
Rays starting pitcher Jeremy Hellickson is 5-2 with a 3.18 ERA in eight starts this season and will be aiming for a fifth consecutive win.\u00a0 Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 32-10 in his last four starts, including a 6-5 win over Toronto last time out.\u00a0 The right-hander allowed four runs (three earned) and five hits over 5 2\/3 innings, while issuing three walks and striking out six in that particular start.\u00a0 Hellickson has tallied a perfect 4-0 mark and 3.38 ERA in five away appearances, as hitters are managing to hit just .232 against him.\u00a0 He will be making just his second career start versus the Tigers, picking up an 8-0 win at Comerica Park on August 10, 2010, tossing seven shutout innings and scattering three hits.<\/p>\n
Detroit snapped a five-game losing streak with a 2-0 road win at Pittsburgh and now heads back to open a 10-game homestand.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got to hope that a good win gets us going a little bit, and we start relaxing a little more and swinging the bats a little bit better,\u201d said Tigers manager Jim Leyland.\u00a0 \u201cOur starting pitching has been very, very good.\u201d\u00a0 The Tigers are still a dangerous offensive club and have recorded at least one extra-base hit in all 46 games this season.\u00a0 Catcher Victor Martinez has definitely done his part during May, hitting .377 with two home runs and 14 RBI in 15 games during the month.\u00a0 Detroit is 5-1 in its last six home games.<\/p>\n
Tigers starting pitcher Phil Coke will be making his ninth start (11th appearance) tonight and brings in a dismal 1-5 record despite having a respectable 3.88 ERA.\u00a0 The left-hander is coming off one of his best outings of the season, hurling seven shutout innings in a no-decision effort at Boston.\u00a0 Coke will be toeing the rubber for just the third time at Comerica Park, entering with an 0-2 mark and 7.36 ERA.\u00a0 In 14 career appearances versus the Rays, he is 0-1 with a 1.29 ERA.<\/p>\n
Bettors will likely back the Rays due to their 4-1 record in Hellickson\u2019s last five road starts, while the Tigers are 0-5 in their last five games versus a right-handed starter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tampa Bay Rays continue their road trip and begin a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park Tampa Bay Rays at Detroit Tigers Tampa Bay avoided getting swept in its first interleague series of the season with a 4-0 win over Florida at Sun Life Stadium.\u00a0 The Rays are now 2-3 on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[2126,48,1604,4913,150],"class_list":["post-15767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-comerica-park","tag-detroit-tigers","tag-jeremy-hellickson","tag-phil-coke","tag-tampa-bay-rays"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15768,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15767\/revisions\/15768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}