Leadoff hitter Gleyber Torres homered in his first at-bat back after a month-long injury layoff, and the Detroit Tigers toppled the Tampa Bay Rays, 8-0, to earn the series win Tuesday in St. Petersburg, Fla.
The second baseman showed he was over his left oblique strain by blasting his third homer an estimated 433 feet to center off Steven Matz’s sinker — one night after the Tigers went deep five times in a 10-9 win.
The American League Central club bashed its way to five runs in the opening two innings to win consecutive games for the first time since defeating the Texas Rangers on May 2-3.
Wenceel Perez went 2-for-4 with a homer, two runs and two RBIs, and Matt Vierling doubled, tripled and walked, adding two RBIs and a run.
Zack Short was 2-for-3 with a double, run and RBI. Riley Greene hit a solo shot and Spencer Torkleson (double) had two hits, two runs and a walk.
Starter Jack Flaherty (1-7), who had lost his previous five starts, recorded his first win by allowing five hits over five-plus scoreless innings. He fanned six with two walks.
Flaherty and Enmanuel De Jesus, who pitched four innings for his first save, allowed just five hits in the club’s fourth shutout of the season.
Detroit rocked Matz (4-3), who was hit hard over 1 2/3 innings in his second straight rough start. The left-hander surrendered five runs on six hits with two strikeouts.
Shortstop Ben Williamson tossed a scoreless ninth as the Rays gave their bullpen a rest.
Richie Palacios doubled and had two of the five hits for the Rays, who were blanked for the third time and fell to 2-7 in the past nine outings.
Vierling followed Torres’ homer by driving his first triple of 2026 to the same spot, and Dillon Dingler sent him home with a sacrifice fly.
Perez kept the long shots coming when he ripped a 3-2 center-cut sinker out to left in the next inning for a two-run shot and a 4-0 lead as the visitors strung together six hits, all for extra bases, in the first two frames.
Vierling doubled in a run with two outs for a 5-0 lead.
Short and Vierling provided sacrifice flies in the sixth for a 7-0 lead, and Greene homered to right for another marker in the seventh.
