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Tigers keep Rays from clinching AL East

Sep 26, 2008 - 1:46 AM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The Tampa Bay Rays waited 11 years just to have a winning season. They will have to wait at least one more day for the chance to capture a division title.

Ramon Santiago hit a pair of solo home runs and rookie Armando Galarraga pitched 7 2/3 innings as the Detroit Tigers held on for a 7-5 victory over the Rays on Thursday in the opener of a four-game series.

Tampa Bay already has clinched a playoff spot and its magic number to wrap up the American League East remained at one. The Rays (96-63) hold a two-game lead in the division and own the tie-breaker over the Boston Red Sox (94-65), who beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-1, on Thursday night.

Mike Hessman and Dusty Ryan also had solo homers and Curtis Granderson added a two-run blast for Detroit, which built a 7-2 lead in snapping a six-game skid and halting Tampa Bay's winning streak at four games.

Kazmir (12-8) was seeking to match a career high in victories but again was done in by the long ball. He allowed four runs - all on solo blasts - and six hits while striking out eight and walking two in five innings.

"I kept getting into a groove and then getting out of it. I could never really get into a comfort zone," Kazmir said. "On a lot of the pitches they hit out, I didn't feel like I threw them with much conviction.

"We still look good for the next few days. We've got good pitchers going, and we'll be OK."

The 24-year-old lefthander also was victimized for four home runs in a 13-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox on September 13.

"I couldn't tell what was going on there," Maddon said. "You don't usually see guys get good swings on 0-2 against Scott, especially not that leadoff hitter, who doesn't really have much power."

Galarraga (13-6), meanwhile, was dominant through seven innings before running into trouble in the eighth. He allowed five runs and six hits with five strikeouts and three walks in winning for the first time since August 19.

"Armando was good," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "We hit the ball out of the ballpark, some unexpected out of Santi (Santiago). People say, 'Oh, you have more energy.' It wasn't that we had more energy. We just hit. We hit the ball out of the ballpark, we pitched good and we had a good ballgame."

Tampa Bay made it interesting when Ben Zobrist's second home run off Galarraga, a three-run shot in the eighth inning, sliced the deficit to 7-5.

Fernando Rodney came on in relief of Galarraga to get the final four outs.

Galarraga surrendered solo homers to Zobrist in the first inning and rookie Evan Longoria in the seventh - two of only three hits he surrendered through seven innings.

"He was throwing the ball great today," Santiago said of Galarraga. "He was locating his pitches very good, outside, inside, slider working pretty good, so he was outstanding."

Santiago homered to lead off the first and third innings to erase the early 1-0 deficit, and Hessman and Ryan went deep in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, to put Kazmir and the Rays in a 4-1 hole.

"I'm seeing it pretty good," Santiago said. "He was throwing strikes, so when you swing at more strikes, you've got more consistency."

Granderson's two-run homer highlighted a three-run seventh for Detroit, which won for just the second time in 14 games.

"It's always nice if you're not going to make it, you've got to play spoiler," Ryan said. "So keep it going as long as we can."