Tigers back on the sunny side after 6-run 9th clinches rain-soaked finale

TAMPA -- Clutch hitting, shutdown pitching and superb defense.

The recipe seemed familiar for the Tigers on Sunday afternoon, when they defeated the Rays, 9-3, at George M. Steinbrenner Field to snap a three-game losing streak and salvage the series finale.

With the Tigers (49-30) one win short of 50 to start the last full week of June, manager A.J. Hinch said his team continues to show the right stuff in all areas.

“Our reset button has been really good,’’ Hinch said. “We play well. We can pitch. We usually play defense. We put up a good fight against the [opposing] starting pitchers. We’ll play our 27 outs.

“We’re not playing for a certain win total in June, and we’re not really after any sort of recognition on what we’re doing. We just reset and play the next series. I love this team for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is that we come to play every day.’’

Wenceel Pérez’s two-run homer provided a seventh-inning go-ahead spark, and then the Tigers put it away with six more runs during a rain-soaked ninth inning.

Meanwhile, right-hander Casey Mize was removed from the game with right leg cramps in the sixth after allowing a leadoff single to Rays third baseman Junior Caminero. Mize, who threw 80 pitches on an afternoon when the feels-like temperature was 100 degrees, crouched slowly, and then walked around the mound in discomfort before departing.

Mize said he asked to throw a few warm-up pitches to see if he could continue, but Hinch vetoed that idea.

“Not in this heat at this time of the season with where he was [80 pitches] and where he was in the lineup,’’ Hinch said. “He had a short leash that inning anyway, so I just took him out very prematurely.’’

Mize, who gave way to four relievers in the final four innings, allowed six hits in five-plus innings, struck out five and walked none.

“I feel like I could have continued,’’ Mize said, “but I think it turned out great in retrospect. The Rays hit the ball well in the first two games of the series, so I was happy to keep them quiet for the most part, and that led to us getting the win.’’

Mize said he was also happy to see productivity from the Tigers’ offense, especially from left fielder Riley Greene (3-for-4, two doubles, three standout defensive plays), whom he termed “an incredible player.’’

“[Greene] made excellent defensive plays, and that’s not even talking about his bat,’’ Hinch said. “The ebbs and flows of the season are really hard, but there’s some consistency. One, it’s going to rain in Florida. Two, it’s really hot in Florida this summer. Three, Riley Greene will be in the lineup. He doesn’t get a break. When those droughts come whenever he’s not getting a lot of hits, it’s just because you see him in there every day. When he’s good -- like, just average -- it’s better than most players.’’

Greene, a Central Florida native who played before his parents Sunday, was 6-for-10 in the three-game series with two doubles, two homers, four RBIs, two walks, five runs and a .625 on-base percentage. The .600 batting average marks his career best in a single series.

“It’s awesome, and I love that my parents were here,’’ Greene said. “It’s great to have a happy flight home after some long days. We’ve had rain delays, a double-header [Thursday], things like that. But at the end of the day, we’ve still got to win baseball games. So this was big.’’

Up 3-1 entering the ninth, the Tigers got RBI singles from Spencer Torkelson and Pérez, followed by a three-run homer from Parker Meadows, all off right-hander Forrest Whitley. After Javier Báez tripled, with a 1-1 count to Zach McKinstry and Florida’s fickle afternoon rain suddenly falling, the game was halted for an 18-minute delay.

Left-hander Mason Montgomery entered after play resumed and surrendered an RBI sacrifice fly to McKinstry.

The Tigers got a Dillon Dingler RBI single in the second off Rays starter Zack Littell. Greene led off the inning with a slicing double to left, then moved to third on a sacrifice fly, setting up Dingler’s hit. Caminero tied the game 1-1 with a fourth-inning homer.

In the seventh, after Littell’s departure, left-hander Garrett Cleavinger walked Torkelson before serving up Pérez's 348-foot homer to right field on an 0-2 pitch (96 mph fastball).