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Kazmir stymies Tigers as Crawford, Devil Rays roll

Aug 9, 2007 - 10:30 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- Scott Kazmir silenced the Detroit Tigers while Carl Crawford and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays made plenty of noise at the plate.

Kazmir tossed six scoreless innings and Crawford ripped three hits - including a crucial homer - as the Devil Rays routed the struggling Tigers, 8-1, in the finale of a four-game series Thursday.

The teams split the series, but Tampa Bay outscored the reigning American League champion Tigers, 25-17. After dropping the first two games here, the Devil Rays posted a 7-1 victory Wednesday thanks to starter James Shields, who worked seven outstanding innings.

"Kazmir and Shields have been super," Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "That why I like to pitch them back to back."

Kazmir (9-7) followed up Shields' outing with a gem of his own Thursday afternoon, yielding three hits and one walk while striking out seven.

"It was just getting ahead," Kazmir said. "It opened up a lot of opportunities for me to throw all of my pitches and make them chase it out of the strike zone. Once you get that first pitch, you kind of get them in swing mode and I was able to throw some good changeups and good sliders."

It was the sixth straight quality outing for Kazmir, who entered the All-Star break with an uncharacteristically high 4.41 ERA. But the hard-throwing lefthander has been terrific since then, going 4-1 with a 1.16 ERA over his last six starts.

Protecting a 1-0 advantage in the fourth, Kazmir ran into trouble when Placido Polanco led off with a double and Gary Sheffield followed with an infield hit. The southpaw struck out slugger Magglio Ordonez on a 3-2 pitch, but Detroit executed a double-steal to advance both runners into scoring position.

But Kazmir bore down, striking out Carlos Guillen and retiring Ivan Rodriguez on a grounder to preserve the one-run lead.

"It's kind of hit or miss with these guys," Kazmir said. "They're such a great-hitting ballclub. They are aggressive. You just want to be able to get ahead of them without kind of serving it up first pitch. That's something they really enjoy doing, they like attacking the first pitch and getting momentum on their side. I got a couple quick outs early in the game and it kind of set the tone."

The Devil Rays gave Kazmir all the support he would need in the following inning, when Akinori Iwamura ripped a one-out triple off Tigers righthander Jeremy Bonderman (10-5).

That set the stage for Crawford, who gave Tampa Bay a 3-0 advantage by blasting Bonderman's first-pitch slider over the wall in right field for his 10th homer of the season.

"I tried to get a good pitch to hit, Crawford said. "He's (Bonderman) always been tough on us, he's always been tough on me. Today I just tried to be patient, saw he was struggling early on. Wanted to just get a good pitch to hit."

The Devil Rays' lone representative at last month's All-Star Game, Crawford also had a stolen base in the first inning and a pair of doubles in the later frames. The speedy left fielder has a 10-game hitting streak and has been red hot over his last eight contests, batting .611 (22-for-36) over that stretch.

"I'm just trying to get a base hit every time I go up to the plate," Crawford said. "That's about it. I'm just trying to keep it simple. I don't have one thing I'm trying to focus on, trying to do every time I go up to the plate other than try to get a base hit.

"I'm just getting a good pitch to hit. I ain't swinging at bad pitches."

Iwamura, B.J. Upton, Delmon Young and Greg Norton each chipped in two hits for Tampa Bay, which improved to 4-3 vs. Detroit this season.

Bonderman got pounded for the fourth consecutive start, allowing seven runs and 10 hits in six-plus innings. The hard-throwing righthander walked three and struck out four.

The 24-year-old Bonderman has been horrendous over his last four outings, going 0-4 with an 11.28 ERA.

"I'm not concerned about him (Bonderman) at all." Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "He is one of my horses and the least of my worries."

Bonderman's poor start could not have come at a worse time for the Tigers (63-51), who entered in a virtual tie with Seattle in the AL wild card race.

"We have to play better," Tigers designated hitter Gary Sheffield said. "All of us have to look in the mirror and see what we can do to improve. When we have done that, the wins will come."

Detroit scored its lone run of the contest in the bottom of the seventh, when Omar Infante lined a two-out single to plate Marcus Thames.

Activated from the disabled list prior to the contest, Thames had two hits for the Tigers, who have lost 13 of their last 17 games.

"I felt real good," Thames said. "I had some good at-bats at Toledo and I'm ready to do what I can to help this team."