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Tigers keep rolling, edge Rays

Aug 24, 2011 - 5:58 AM St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Alex Avila collected two hits and knocked in a run as the Detroit Tigers earned a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in the second portion of a four-game set.

Brad Penny (9-9) allowed one run on eight hits and a walk in 6 1/3 innings in the Tigers' fifth straight win and their sixth in seven games.

"He really pitched effectively. That's what we needed," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We definitely needed that kind of pitching performance tonight."

Phil Coke tossed two scoreless innings to earn his first save of the year for the AL Central leaders.

David Price (11-11) allowed two runs on six hits and two walks through eight innings as Tampa Bay dropped its second straight contest after a five-game win streak.

Ben Zobrist had two hits and an RBI for the Rays, but grounded out with the go-ahead run in scoring position in the ninth.

"That's really put us behind the eight-ball all year," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "We saw over 160 pitches and scored only one run. That's very difficult to do, but we did. We just have to move runners better with scoring position."

Coke worked around a two-out double by Casey Kotchman in the eighth and also allowed a two-out double by Johnny Damon in the ninth. Evan Longoria was then issued an intentional walk, and a wild pitch during Zobrist's at-bat put the go-ahead runs in scoring position. But Zobrist slapped a grounder to first to cap a 10-pitch battle to end the game.

Reid Brignac and Desmond Jennings led off the third inning with back-to-back singles. After a Damon pop up, Brignac moved to third on an Longoria groundout before coming home on Zobrist's double down the first-base line. Matt Joyce then grounded out to second to strand runners on second and third, keeping it a one-run game.

Delmon Young and Miguel Cabrera started the seventh with back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners. Victor Martinez then hit a hard liner to third that Longoria stopped and made a throw home from his knees to get Young at the plate.

But after a wild pitch put runners on second and third, Avila lined a single into center field, scoring Cabrera. Jhonny Peralta followed with a sacrifice fly to left-center, bringing home Martinez and giving the Tigers a 2-1 advantage.

After Penny gave up a one-out walk to pinch-hitter John Jaso in the home seventh, he was replaced by Daniel Schlereth on the mound. Schlereth fanned pinch-hitter B.J. Upton before allowing a base hit to center by Jennings and a walk to Damon, loading the bases.

Schlereth was then pulled in favor of Ryan Perry, who induced a Longoria fly out to center to end the inning.

Game Notes

The start of the game was delayed because of a brief power outage at Tropicana Field...Penny is now 3-4 in eight meetings against the Rays...Price fell to 3-1 in six starts against Detroit...Tampa Bay went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranded 12 men on base...The Tigers snapped a streak of 10 games in which they had hit a home run. It was the longest such streak by Detroit since also homering in 10 straight games August 11-21, 2009...Tampa Bay is 0-5 against Detroit this season and has lost six straight dating back to last season.