ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) – Magglio Ordonez homered for the third time since coming off the disabled list, helping the Detroit Tigers beat Tampa Bay 6-4 on Thursday night to extend the Devil Rays’ losing streak to a season-high nine games.

Chris Shelton added a two-run homer to back Sean Douglass (2-0), who allowed three runs and five hits in five innings. The bullpen limited the punchless Devil Rays to one run, with Troy Percival working the ninth inning for his eighth save in 10 opportunities.

The victory was the third straight for the Tigers, who played without Ivan Rodriguez. The All-Star catcher jammed his left pinkie sliding into home during Wednesday night’s 7-3 win at Cleveland and is listed day-to-day.

Shelton’s sixth homer finished a three-run first inning against Seth McClung (0-5). Carlos Guillen drove in Detroit’s first run with an RBI double and Ordonez’s 384-foot, solo homer put the Tigers up 4-2 in the third.

Ordonez hit a two-run homer off New York’s Randy Johnson in his first game off the DL last Friday and homered again in a victory at Cleveland on Tuesday. The four-time All-Star signed a $75 million, five-year contract as a free agent during the offseason and was 0-for-10 in three games for the Tigers before going on the DL with a hernia on April 13.

The Devil Rays kept it close by scoring twice in the first and once in the fifth off Douglass, who walked one and struck out four before departing with a 4-3 lead.

Julio Lugo, who had four hits after going 3-for-24 on Tampa Bay’s recent road trip, drove in two of the three runs off the Detroit starter with a first-inning triple and a bloop RBI single in the fifth.

Jorge Cantu drove in two runs for Tampa Bay with a first-inning sacrifice fly and eighth-inning grounder against reliever Kyle Farnsworth.

McClung, who allowed four runs and six hits in seven innings, settled after walking Placido Polanco and giving up Guillen’s RBI double and Shelton’s homer to begin the game. Although he yielded Ordonez’s homer in the third, the right-hander kept himself in the game by twice working out of jams with runners in scoring position.

Detroit broke it open in the eighth when Dmitri Young doubled off Chad Orvella with two outs to snap an 0-for-18 drought, then scored on Craig Monroe’s double. Brandon Inge followed with another double to make it 6-3.

Notes: Tampa Bay’s Carl Crawford led off the bottom of the first with his ninth triple, then scored on Lugo’s triple. … Rodriguez’s .381 career batting average against the Devil Rays is the highest among active players. … The Devil Rays went 0-6 on a road trip that ended Wednesday night in Chicago. Their 8-35 record away from Tropicana Field is the worst road mark after 43 games by any team since the 1963 Mets also were 8-35. It’s the slowest road start by an AL team since the 1932 Red Sox began 7-36.

AP-ES-07-07-05 2202EDT