DETROIT -- Daniel Norris made it through five innings in a close game against the Braves last Saturday when Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson decided to try to stretch him. It was a risky decision, and it cost Gardenhire some sleep after Austin Riley hit a two-run homer off him. But it made sense for Norris’ growth as a pitcher.

“I just think sometimes we’re going to have to let guys fight through it,” Gardenhire said afterward. “I can’t go to the bullpen early every time and survive.”

Again, Gardenhire and Anderson gave Norris a chance. Again, he got into the sixth inning but not quite through it, leaving after a two-out double but not yielding any more damage. Considering what could’ve happened if Norris had exited in the fourth, Gardenhire will take it, even though three more Rays runs off Detroit’s bullpen left the Tigers with a 6-1 loss in the rubber match of the three-game series at Comerica Park.

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“Daniel was fine. He gave us a chance,” Gardenhire said. “They nicked him a little bit here and there. His pitches were good against a good-hitting team. They made him work. His pitch count got up quick. But I thought he hung in there pretty doggone good.”

For the Tigers, it was another reminder that this is a learning year, even for a pitcher who has been in Detroit since 2015. For Norris, it was another test to help him try to become a workhorse. He didn’t get where he wanted, but on a day when he had less than his best stuff, he kept his team in what was then a low-scoring game.

“After the d’Arnaud home run, I just sort of channeled more of an attack mode,” Norris said. “I thought I finished strong.”

Attack mode hasn’t always worked well for Norris, who has leaned heavily on fastballs in some similar situations. In Thursday’s case, however, he leaned on fastballs and sliders and picked up results. He had to.

From the moment Yandy Diaz lined Norris’ first pitch of the afternoon through the middle at 105 mph, according to Statcast, Norris had a challenge. Three of Tampa Bay’s first four batters singled, with Austin Meadows’ ground ball through the right side driving in Diaz.

The Rays had at least one hit in each of Norris’ 5 2/3 innings, including three leadoff hitters. Yet the only scoring damage after that early flurry was d’Arnaud's home run off a changeup over the plate.

The changeup has been a big pitch behind Norris’ improvement over the past month. No one had homered off it this season, and the average exit velocity against it was just 83.7 mph, according to Statcast. It had been almost entirely a groundball pitch when hitters have put it in play, which hadn’t been often, with a 37 percent whiff rate.

The 1-0 changeup to d’Arnaud, however, didn’t work that way.

“It was just lack of intent there,” Norris said. “That one to d’Arnaud was just a strike changeup. So after that, I just started attacking better. And that’s when the heater was jumping.”

Statcast showed Norris’ fastball velocity ticking up his third trip through the order. Norris stayed in the game with six strikeouts, five of them swinging, all but one of them off his fastball and slider.

This was Norris pitching under duress, trying to find ways to avoid the big hit that could send him to an early exit and the Tigers to a rough afternoon. As it turned out, d’Arnaud homered again to put the game out of reach, but he did so off reliever Daniel Stumpf.

Norris gave up a leadoff single in the sixth, but he erased it with a pickoff of Kevin Kiermaier. He coaxed d’Arnaud to chase a high fastball for the second out of the inning, but Daniel Robertson’s double down the right-field line ended Norris’ afternoon at 98 pitches.

Meanwhile, Brandon Dixon’s first-inning RBI single -- a ground ball through the left side off Rays opener Ryne Stanek and through Tampa Bay’s shift -- was Detroit’s lone run.