Meadows and Torkelson homer as the Tigers move closer to the postseason with a 7-1 win over the Rays

DETROIT (AP) — Parker Meadows and Spencer Torkelson homered, and the Detroit Tigers strengthened their bid for an AL wild card with a 7-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night.

Detroit moved 10 games over .500 with its fourth consecutive victory. It is tied with Kansas City (84-74) for second in the wild-card standings behind Baltimore. Minnesota (82-76) is two games back after it closed out an 8-3 victory over Miami.

The Tigers play the Rays on Thursday before finishing the season with three home games against the lowly Chicago White Sox.

“It is hard to put this into words — it is awesome,” said Torkelson, who drove in three runs. “It has been an incredible couple of weeks.”

Detroit is 29-11 since Aug. 10, thanks to ace Tarik Skubal, one of the favorites for the AL Cy Young Award, and a cast of young pitchers.

After Skubal tossed seven scoreless innings in Tuesday's 2-1 win, rookie Keider Montero pitched 2 2/3 innings of one-run ball before five relievers combined for 6 1/3 scoreless innings.

“You have to pick your poison against that team,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “You either have to face Tarik Skubal or go up against all the ways they can match up against you. That bullpen has been a huge part of what they've done.”

Jackson Jobe, Detroit's best pitching prospect, worked the ninth in his major league debut. He retired Richie Palacios for the final out with the crowd of 32,000 chanting his name.

“I don't know how many people get welcomed to a major league stadium quite like that,” Hinch said. “It was pretty incredible.”

Tampa Bay right-hander Zach Littell (8-10) came into the game with a 20-inning scoreless streak, but he allowed two runs in the first. He went 4 2/3 innings, giving up three runs and seven hits.

The Rays (78-80) were eliminated from postseason contention. They need to win their last four to finish with a winning record.

“This isn't what we wanted from this year, but we are where we performed,” Cash said. “A winning season is the standard set by a lot of players in our clubhouse, and they want to finish strong.”

After Montero escaped a jam in the top of the first, Meadows hit Littell’s second pitch for his ninth home run. After two hard-hit outs, Riley Greene doubled and scored on Wenceel Perez’s base hit.

“We knew it is a nine-inning game, but there's something different about having the early lead at this time of year,” Hinch said. “We escape the first inning, which was a lot of deal with, and then Parker hits the homer.”

The Rays left the bases loaded in the second, but Junior Caminero made it 2-1 with his fifth homer in the third.

Greene responded with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning.

The Rays put two runners on in the sixth, but Tyler Holton came out of the bullpen to strike out pinch-hitter Dylan Carson.

Torkleson connected for a two-run homer against Manuel Rodríguez in the sixth. He also hit an RBI double off Drew Rasmussen in a two-run eighth.

“This is a great time to be a Detroit Tiger,” Jobe said.

UP NEXT

The teams finish the three-game series on Thursday. Former Tigers RHP Tyler Alexander (6-5, 5.35 ERA) will face Detroit RHP Reese Olson (4-8, 3.49 ERA).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Dave Hogg, The Associated Press