LAKELAND, Fla. — The Detroit Tigers took down the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-2, on Sunday at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium.

The Tigers are 20-9-3 in Grapefruit League play.

What happened

Right-hander Jack Flaherty struck out the first four batters he faced in his final spring training start: José Caballero (foul tip, 86 mph slider), Austin Shenton (swinging strike, 79 mph curveball), Randy Arozarena (called strike, 94 mph fastball) and former Tiger Isaac Paredes (called strike, 95 mph fastball).

Flaherty, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract in the offseason, struck out eight batters — with zero walks — across 4⅔ innings, throwing 63 of 87 pitches for strikes. He finished with a 2.95 ERA and 26 strikeouts across 18⅓ innings in six spring games.

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For his last four strikeouts, Flaherty struck out Richie Palacios (swinging strike, 80 mph curveball) in the second inning, Caballero (swinging strike, 85 mph slider) and Arozarena (called strike, 86 mph slider) in the third inning and René Pinto (called strike, 95 mph fastball) in the fifth inning.

His fastball averaged 93.8 mph — up from last year's 93.1 mph average — and maxed out at 96.1 mph.

Starting off

Flaherty struck out the side in the first inning, but he didn't have the same success in the second inning.

It wasn't entirely his fault.

After striking out Paredes, Harold Ramírez reached safely on a throwing error by shortstop Javier Báez. Amed Rosario fell behind 0-2 in the count but tagged a third-pitch slider at the bottom of the strike zone for a double to left field.

The error and the double put runners on the corners.

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The Rays cashed in when Jose Siri hammered Flaherty's full-count fastball for a single to left field. Both Ramírez and Rosario scored on the hard-hit single — putting the Rays ahead, 2-0 — but only one run was charged to Flaherty's tab as an earned run.

Catcher Carson Kelly threw out Siri trying to steal second base for the second out, then Palacios struck out swinging for the third out.

Flaherty gave up five hits.

He threw 43 fastballs, 25 sliders, 15 curveballs and four changeups. He generated 13 whiffs (on 46 swings) with six fastballs, five sliders and two curveballs. He also had 17 called strikes.

At the plate

The Tigers answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the second inning.

Gio Urshela drove in both runs.

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The Tigers took a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning after Matt Vierling's walk and Andy Ibáñez's single. Vierling advanced from first base to third base on Ibáñez's single, and he scored from third base when Ryan Vilade grounded into a double play.

On the mound

The Tigers pitched four relievers.

Right-hander Andrew Chafin recorded the final out in the fifth inning with one pitch. After that, right-hander Alex Lange tossed a scoreless sixth inning with one strikeout. Right-hander Will Vest threw a scoreless seventh inning with one strikeout, working around a leadoff single.

Right-hander Beau Brieske, who is competing with three other relievers for two openings in the bullpen, handled the eighth and ninth innings. He protected the one-run lead by keeping the Rays from scoring.

Three stars

1. Flaherty, 2. Urshela, 3. Brieske.

Next up

Tuesday (12:35 p.m.) vs. Tampa Bay Rays in St. Petersburg.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Jack Flaherty strikes out eight in 3-2 win over Rays