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Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
Detroit 7, Tampa Bay 2
When: 1:05 PM ET, Thursday, April 12, 2012
Where: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan
Temperature: 54°
Umpires: Home - Mark Carlson, 1B - Ed Hickox, 2B - Ed Rapuano, 3B - Cory Blaser
Attendance: 30288

Tigers 7, Rays 2:
Brennan Boesch drove in four runs and Andy Dirks had a big game as host Detroit took the rubber game from Tampa Bay.

Drew Smyly pitched four solid innings in his first career start and five relievers combined to allow three hits in five innings for the Tigers. Collin Balester (1-0) got credit for the win with two strong innings.

Boesch was the lone regular in the Detroit lineup hitting under .300 entering Thursday but began to make up for it in the fifth. Dirks got it started with an RBI triple and Boesch followed two batters later with a two-run single off Jeff Niemann (0-1) that snapped a 1-1 deadlock.

After Evan Longoria drove in a run to bring the Rays back within a run in the top of the seventh, Boesch responded in the bottom of the frame, sending a single into center off Jake McGee that plated two more.

Niemann was making his first start of the season after being pushed back from a scheduled Wednesday appearance. The tall right-hander struck out six but was charged with three runs and four hits in five innings.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Tampa Bay   Detroit
Jeff Niemann Player Drew Smyly
Loss W/L No Decision
5.0 IP 4.0
6 Strikeouts 4
4 Hits 4
5.40 ERA 2.25
Hitting
Tampa Bay   Detroit
Carlos Pena Player Alex Avila
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 1
1 HR 0
5 TB 4
.667 Avg .667
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Tampa Bay 7 1 12 .212 26 9 2 5 0 0
Detroit 10 0 14 .303 12 8 6 2 2 0