The Tigers ended their five game skid this afternoon behind a stellar outing by Rick Porcello.  He needed just 84 pitches to get through eight shutout innings and he gave up just a hit and two walks.  Oddly, Porcello gave up nine fly balls to nine ground balls so he wasn’t his typical self but everything stayed out on the field.  That matches Porcello’s longest outing.  He’s pitched eight innings four times (once in 2009 and three times last year) but he’s never gone the distance yet.  Jose Valverde threw a shutout eighth to preserve the shutout.

The Tigers only got seven hits but they pieced together a couple of runs.  Casper Wells singled home Victor Martinez in the second inning and then Jhonny Peralta  belted a solo home run in the fourth.  For Peralta it was his seventh home run of the season. 

The Tigers are once again .500 as they come home to take on a tough Rays team.  Phil Coke gets the nod for Detroit and Jeremy Hellickson throws for the Rays.  Hellickson is off to a nice start in his first full season so it’ll be interesting to see what we do against him.

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