D’Arnaud homers twice, leads Rays to 6-1 win over Tigers

DETROIT (AP) — Travis d’Arnaud homered for the first time in over 14 months, going deep twice for the Tampa Bay Rays in a 6-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.

D’Arnaud missed all but four games in 2018 due to Tommy John surgery. His only homer last year came March 31. On Thursday, he hit two-run shots in the fourth and eighth innings. Willy Adames also homered for Tampa Bay.

Jalen Beeks (5-0) pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings for the Rays, who improved to a major league-best 20-9 on the road.

Daniel Norris (2-5) allowed three runs and 11 hits in 5 2/3 innings.

Ryne Stanek pitched two innings as Tampa Bay’s opener, then Beeks relieved and worked into the seventh, allowing four hits.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring in the first on an RBI single by American League batting leader Austin Meadows. Detroit tied it in the bottom half on a run-scoring single by Brandon Dixon.

D’Arnaud’s first homer gave Tampa Bay a 3-1 lead. Adames hit a solo shot in the eighth, and d’Arnaud added another home run that inning to make it 6-1.

The Rays took two of three at Detroit for only their second series win at Comerica Park since the start of the 2011 season. They were 1-7-1 in their previous nine series at Comerica.

Tampa Bay held an opponent to one run or fewer for the 11th time in 29 road games.

Detroit’s JaCoby Jones singled in the third to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rays: Tommy Pham (right calf) returned from a five-game absence. He went hitless as the DH.

UP NEXT

Rays: Tampa Bay begins a four-game series at Boston on Friday night. The Rays are scheduled to play a lot of baseball in a short period of time, with a doubleheader Saturday and an afternoon game Sunday.

Tigers: Matthew Boyd (5-4) takes the mound Friday night in the opener of a three-game set against AL Central-leading Minnesota.