Riley Greene breaks up no-hitter in 7th in Detroit Tigers' 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay Rays
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers were no-hit, for six innings at least, by Tampa Bay Rays starter Jeffrey Springs.
Springs, a left-hander who signed a four-year, $31 million contract extension in the offseason, tossed six scoreless innings with one walk and 12 strikeouts. Lefty reliever Colin Poche replaced him for the seventh inning, and the first batter he faced, Riley Greene, broke up the no-hit bid with an infield single on a grounder to first base.
Still, the Tigers lost, 5-1 — catcher Jake Rogers hit the Tigers' first home run of the 2023 season in the ninth inning — and were swept in the three-game series to begin 2023. Off to an 0-3 start, the schedule doesn't get any easier with the next three games against the Houston Astros — the 2022 World Series champions — at Minute Maid Park.
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Riley Greene reached a sprint speed of 29.7 ft/sec to beat the throw to first base for Tigers' first base hit. 30.0 is considered elite. pic.twitter.com/8q2nn3o0oT
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) April 2, 2023
Greene bounced a two-strike slider to first baseman Luke Railey, but Poche was late trying to cover the bag. Greene sprinted to first base and barely beat Poche, turning a ball in play wiht a .120 expected chance of a hit into the Tigers' first safety.
The first Tiger reached safely in the second inning when Nick Maton drew a five-pitch walk with two outs. The next 13 batters were retired in a row; Springs retired 18 of 19 batters he faced.
The Tigers only put six balls in play against Springs.
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He struck out Matt Vierling (twice), Greene, Javier Báez, Austin Meadows, Spencer Torkelson, Miguel Cabrera (twice), Jonathan Schoop (twice) and Jake Rogers (twice) by mixing his fastball and changeup.
Springs, deceptive because of his pitch tunneling, threw 37 fastballs (one ball in play, two swings and misses, 14 called strikes) and 28 changeups (three balls in play, nine swings and misses, two called strikes). He also mixed in 16 breaking balls.
His fastball averaged 91.9 mph.
Wentz gets going
Left-hander Joey Wentz fell behind in the count to three of the four batters he faced in a scoreless first inning, but after those early struggles throwing strikes, he settled in and pitched into the sixth inning without any run support.
He struck out two batters in the second inning.
Randy Arozarena put the Rays ahead, 1-0, with a solo home run in the fourth inning. The below-the-strike-zone fastball, hit with a 107.2 mph exit velocity, traveled 436 feet to left-center.
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The outing got away from Wentz with one out in the sixth inning.
Wander Franco smacked a ground-rule double down the right-field line and scored on Isaac Paredes' ground-ball single for a 2-0 Rays lead. Right-handed reliever Jason Foley replaced Wentz. He hit the first batter he faced (Arozarena), then walked the second batter. After a strikeout, Jose Siri delivered a two-run single, extending the lead to 4-0.
Wentz allowed three runs on four hits and one walk with three strikeouts in 5⅓ innings, throwing 47 of 72 pitches for strikes.
Foley was charged with one run.
Left-hander Chasen Shreve conceded the Rays' fifth run in the eighth inning.
Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @EvanPetzold.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers get 2 hits in 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay Rays, series sweep
