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Cobb gets third win, sets career high in K's

The old adage says to put the past behind you.

The Rays will be echoing those sentiments on many levels entering Sunday's series finale against the Tigers at Tropicana Field.

On one level, the Tigers have taken two of three in the series and have won 11 of the club's last 14 games against the Rays, dating back to August 11, 2010.

On a personal level, Rays starter Alex Cobb will toe the rubber looking to shake off his last outing against the Royals when he got roughed up for 13 hits and eight runs in eight innings.

"I'm not upset by the last outing," Cobb said. "You have those outings throughout the rest of the year. I'm not gonna get down about it. There are good things I can take from it and put it into the next outing."

Cobb chalked two wins in his first two outings of the season, but he has struggled of late, going 1-4 with a 5.61 ERA since.

Cobb has one other start against Detroit, on June 13, 2011, leaving with a no-decision after giving up eight hits and one run through 5 2/3 innings, striking out seven.

"When things are going good throughout the year, it's easy to keep your head up and compete and do good," Cobb said. "When you face adversity and struggles, it's when you really find out what you're made of. After getting down six or seven early, I was able to battle and pitch four or more innings with one run. I'll build off that and not look so much into the early innings."

He'll go up against another struggling starter in the Tigers' Drew Smyly.

Just three months ago, Smyly was a starting pitcher for Class A Lakeland, trying to win a rotation spot. He has been struggling to get back to the form that earned him a spot in the Tigers' rotation.

Smyly has gone seven straight outings without a quality start since tossing six innings of one-run ball in Seattle on May 9.

Opponents are hitting .312 off Smyly since then, and his ground-ball-to-fly-ball ratio has just about flipped, with twice as many in the air.

Tigers: Cabrera chasing history
• Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera enters Sunday's game with 99 hits, 16 home runs and 62 RBIs.

With one more knock by Cabrera, it will be just the seventh time a Tiger has collected at least 100 hits, 15 home runs and 60 RBIs prior to the All-Star break.

Cabrera accomplished the feat for the club in 2010, following Magglio Ordonez in 2006.

• Tigers center fielder Austin Jackson enters Sunday's game leading all American Leaguers with a .413 on-base percentage as the leadoff man. He is also second in the AL among leadoff hitters with a .326 batting average and a .528 slugging percentage.

Jackson is 7-for-18 in the first three games of the series, including his three-run home run Saturday.

But Jackson hasn't just been hot at the plate. He has also not committed an error in his last 127 games in center field, dating back to June 30, 2011, with a total of 292 chances.

Rays: Three pitchers return to roster
The Rays' pitching staff got a little stronger Saturday as pitchers Jeremy Hellickson, Kyle Farnsworth and Joel Peralta returned to the active roster. All three pitchers saw action in Saturday's game.

Hellickson nabbed his first start since June 14 after being out with right shoulder inflammation, but he was forced to exit after just 2 2/3 innings after taking a liner off his right leg. He was diagnosed with a bruised right shin, and X-rays came back negative.

Farnsworth made his first appearance of the season, throwing one inning, allowing one hit and one walk, while striking out two. He had been on the 60-day disabled list with a right elbow strain.

Peralta also pitched one inning, but he allowed a three-run home run to Jackson.

Peralta, who returned from his eight-game suspension due to his use of a foreign substance on his glove, also struck out two batters in the eighth.

Rays manager Joe Maddon said the addition of the three hurlers brings some much needed depth to the pitching staff going forward.

"If you were to get hot, which hopefully we would, you don't wear anybody out while you're going through this moment," Maddon said. "Because the concern is always that when you get going pretty well, you are going to wear people out by using them too much. But now I think we're at a point with enough candidates that it should prevent us from wearing anybody out."

Worth noting
The Tigers have not been shut out in 146 straight games, dating back to July 17, 2011. It's the longest streak in franchise history.

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