Seymour again gives Rays chance to win in stellar August stretch

DETROIT -- Rays left-hander Ian Seymour kept his team in a game it lost, 4-1, Tuesday night to the Tigers at Comerica Park. However, he gave up a two-run homer to rookie center fielder Max Clark in the fifth inning and wasn’t sharp enough to earn his 10th victory of the season.

Seymour came in after opener Casey Legumina, who threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings of one-hit ball with two strikeouts. Seymour went 5 2/3 innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits with five strikeouts and no walks.

“They got the home run on a ball left kind of middle-middle,” said Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash. “Other than that, I thought Ian threw the ball really well. Stuff was good, efficient, finished the game for us, which was really beneficial.

“But just not our day at the plate.”

Allowing three earned runs over eight innings wasn’t enough for a Rays victory on a night when Detroit rookie starter Jackson Jobe allowed one run in 4 1/3 innings and his bullpen closed the door tight -- allowing just one single and one walk the rest of the way.

Seymour, who entered with a 2.35 ERA over his past four starts, continued many of the positive trends in his pitching. He’s now posted 38 strikeouts with only four walks over his last five outings, covering 28 2/3 innings.

“He gets strikeouts because he has a four-pitch mix and is deceptive,” said Cash. “And he commands the baseball really, really well. He’s generally putting himself in pitcher counts as opposed to hitter counts. And you’ll see [hitters] expand [their strike zones] with two strikes when he goes out of the zone.”

Seymour wasn’t satisfied with doing well in the game overall because he didn’t do enough to win.

“I was mostly frustrated with the pitch to Clark,” said Seymour (9-5) of the sweeper he left high and hittable. “That’s something I’ve been working on and I didn’t make the right pitch there in the right spot. I was frustrated with my execution and that was the difference in the game.

“Ahh, just stuff to work on.”

Tampa Bay pitching coach Kyle Snyder talked before this game about how Seymour has eliminated pitches from his arsenal while adding effective ones and sharpening others. Point being, Seymour has more ways to attack hitters now.

“He does, yeah,” said Snyder. “He creates space in terms of what the hitters do and how they have to adjust the barrel. It’s been pretty fun to watch.”

“It’s showing that the process of things we’ve been working on are successful in some areas,” said Seymour. “But, with the runs allowed over the last month or so, there’s still room for improvement.”

The Rays were limited to one run on five hits, and three of those knocks came in the fourth, when Jobe limited the damage after Junior Caminero had a lead-off single and Liam Hicks doubled for the team’s only extra-base hit of the game.

Chandler Simpson then fouled out to third before Jonny DeLuca reached on an infield single that drove home Caminero. Cedric Mullins walked to put runners on first and second with one out, but Richie Palacios struck out and Taylor Walls grounded out to first.

The fifth inning was the difference in the game as the Tigers tacked on one more run when Tampa Bay’s normally strong defense faltered.

Gleyber Torres was credited with a bloop single to right on a ball that Rays right fielder DeLuca called but could not catch as second baseman Palacios was approaching the play.

“Calling that when I did, I had run a long way,” said DeLuca. “[But] if I call it, I’ve got to take it.”

Seymour then struck out Hao-Yu Lee and could’ve been out of the inning had first baseman Jonathan Aranda not committed a fielding error on a ball hit by Kevin McGonigle, allowing Torres to race home.

Simpson hit streak ended on scoring change

Left fielder Simpson’s 15-game hitting streak was over before he came to bat with a chance to stretch it to 16 games on Tuesday night.

MLB announced a scoring change from the Aug. 20 game with Toronto that brought it to an end retroactively. Simpson had a hit in that game that was originally scored as a single that he advanced to second on because of a throwing error. It was changed to a two-base fielding error on the first baseman.

That halted his hitting streak at 10 games, and he entered Tuesday night with a four-game streak as a result. However, Simpson was 0-for-3 with a walk to drop his batting average to .308.