Victor Martinez’s playing career will come to an end on Saturday when the Detroit Tigers face the Kansas City Royals.He will be honored in a pregame ceremony at Comerica Park and serve as the designated hitter. He will not play the remainder of the season.Martinez http://www.nationalsfanproshop.com/authentic-max-scherzer-jersey , 39, has been in the majors since 2002. He is a career .295 hitter and has hit 246 home runs. He’s been with the Tigers organization since 2011, though he missed the 2012 season with a knee injury.Article continues below ...“I think that’s just me thanking the Detroit Tigers fans and everybody here,” he told the Detroit News. “To play the last game of my career here, it’s just one of the ways to thank everybody. I think that would be fair for everybody.”Manager Ron Gardenhire believes it’s a fitting way for Martinez to head into retirement.“He’s just a special guy who has had a great career,” Gardenhire said. “Not just a good career, a great career. I’ve watched him from both sides, from the visitors’ dugout and from the home dugout. I’m pretty lucky.”Martinez will be facing a pitcher who has become a Tigers’ nemesis, Jakob Junis.The Royals right-hander has recorded half of his eight victories against his team’s American League Central Division rival. Junis has posting a 1.74 ERA while striking out 25 batters in 31 innings in those four starts. He’s held Tigers batters to a .193 average.Subtract those performances and Junis is 4-12 with a 5.04 ERA in his other starts. He’ll try to torment the Tigers once again in the third game of the four-game series.In his last start against them on Aug. 28, Junis collected the first complete-game victory of his career. He struck out seven and didn’t issue a walk in the 6-2 triumph.Junis (8-12, 4.42 ERA) had his shortest outing of the season on Sunday, giving up four runs on eight hits in three innings against Minnesota.“I had been keeping the ball down and staying ahead of hitters,” Junis told MLB.com afterward. “(Sunday), I was behind hitters and not keeping the ball down. Wasn’t in the zone consistently.”The Tigers haven’t seen that side of him. He’s 6-1 with a 3.14 ERA in seven career starts. Junis doesn’t have more than two victories against any other team.Detroit’s top hitter this season, right fielder Nicholas Castellanos Michael Taylor Jersey , has gone hitless in 14 career at-bats facing Junis.The Tigers will counter with veteran right-hander Jordan Zimmermann (7-8, 4.41 ERA). He, too, struggled in his last outing on Monday. Zimmermann surrendered five runs in seven hits in 3 2/3 innings against Minnesota. He’s been tagged for seven homers in his last four outings.“He was really upset,” Gardenhire said afterward. “Just trying to figure out what was going on. Part of it is we haven’t been scoring runs. He’s healthy and he’s been throwing the ball well. He’s given us a chance most night. Just the last couple have been rough.”Zimmermann has traditionally pitched well against the Royals. In eight career appearances, he’s 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA.The teams have split the first two games of the series. ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — For Blake Snell, all the setbacks set up all these victories.Snell became the major leagues’ first 20-game winner in two years, helping pitch the Tampa Bay Rays past the Texas Rangers 4-0 Tuesday night.Snell (20-5) threw one-hit ball for five innings and tied the Tampa Bay record for victories in a season. David Price also won 20 in his Cy Young Award season of 2012.Little more than a year ago, things were much different.Snell, Tampa Bay’s 2011 first-round draft pick, was demoted to Triple-A Durham during last season with a 6-14 career record. Since returning to the Rays on Aug. 8, he’s 25-6.“Knowing what it’s like to struggle, that helps me a lot,” Snell said. “It’s always in the back of my head.”Snell won his eighth straight start. The 25-year-old lefty struck out five to reach 200 this year http://www.nationalsfanproshop.com/authentic-shawn-kelley-jersey , walked two and threw 92 pitches, exiting with a 1.97 ERA.No one in the big leagues won more than 18 games last season. Rick Porcello won 22 in 2016, with Max Scherzer and J.A. Happ each winning 20.Tampa Bay has won four straight and 13 of 16 this month in a last-ditch attempt to wrest the AL second wild-card playoff berth from Oakland. The Rays trail the A’s by 5 ½ games.“It feels good being counted on,” Snell said, “because I know what it’s like to not be counted on.”“We’ve just been playing good team baseball when I pitch. The guys are helping me swinging it, playing defense, and I’ve been doing well as well,” he said.Manager Kevin Cash didn’t even pretend he knew Snell would win 20 games or strike out 200 this season.“No,” Cash said. “I think Blake deserves the bulk of the credit, but there’s been a lot of people in our player development system, (coaches) Kyle Snyder and Stan (Boroski), a lot of work has gone in. And I think our catchers deserve a lot of credit.”The Rays scored three times in the fourth against Yovani Gallardo (8-6). Willie Adames hit a two-run homer and Joey Wendle had an RBI double.Snell remained the AL leader in wins over Cleveland’s Corey Kluber, who won his 19th on Tuesday night.Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos had the only hit against Snell, a second-inning single.“His fastball command, it was not great today Trea Turner Jersey ,” Chirinos said. “I was able to hit the breaking ball my first at-bat. After that, I thought he was going to throw me more fastballs, but he stuck with the same plan — changeup, changeup, changeup.”Three Rays relievers completed the four-hit shutout with four scoreless innings.Wendle tied a career high with four hits, including two doubles.TRAINER’S ROOMRays: C Jesus Sucre fouled a pitch off the top of his left foot. He was hobbling after the game, but X-rays were negative.Rangers: OF Joey Gallo missed his second game since fouling a ball off his right little toe over the weekend in San Diego. Manager Jeff Banister said, “I don’t foresee it lingering.”GOOSE EGGSThe Rangers were not shut out their first 75 home games through Sunday. Now Texas has been shut out on a total of only six hits in the first two games of this three-game series.They hadn’t been shut out back-to-back on consecutive nights at home since Detroit blanked Texas Aug. 13-14, 2016.WELCOME BACKThe crowd cheered ex-Ranger Carlos Gomez when, standing at the dugout railing, he made a one-handed grab of a one-hop foul ball by Sucre.UP NEXTRays: Diego Castillo (3-2, 3.24) will start as the opener for the fifth time in 11 days.Rangers: LHP Yohander Mendez (2-1, 3.86) will start the final game in the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon.