Matt Garza threw baseball's fifth no-hitter on Monday night. (Mike Carlson/Associated Press)

Matt Garza threw the first no-hitter in Tampa Bay Rays franchise history on Monday in a 5-0 home victory over the Detroit Tigers.

Detroit's Ramon Santiago flew out to right-fielder Ben Zobrist for the final out at Tropicana Field, sending Rays teammates to the mound to mob Garza.

"It was one of those days where everything lined up," Garza said. "The defence made great plays. I really can't say enough about them."

Garza (11-5) faced the minimum number of batters, 27. He yielded a one-out walk to Brennan Boesch in the second, who then got caught up in a double play.

The right-hander struck out six.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth, when Tampa Bay loaded the bases and Matt Joyce cleared them with a grand slam off Detroit's Max Scherzer (7-8)..

Carl Crawford added a solo shot in the eighth for the Rays.

The closest Detroit's injury-depleted lineup came to a hit was Danny Worth's two-out liner in the third, but Zobrist made a leaping catch above his head as he retreated toward the wall.

"I was able to time it just right for my jump. Caught it right in the end of my glove," Zobrist said. "He pitched so great. It's his day. I felt honoured to be part of a game like that."

Tigers cleanup batter Miguel Cabrera hit a hard liner to left leading off the eighth, but Crawford barely had to move to make the play.

It is the fifth no-hitter of the baseball season. Tampa Bay has been on the wrong end of two of those and was also no-hit in 2009.

The total number this season would be six if not for an admitted botched call from umpire Jim Joyce to deny Detroit's Armando Galarraga a perfect game on June 1.

The modern record is seven in a season, occurring in both 1990 and 1991. There were eight no-hitters in 1884.

The Tigers as a franchise have been held without a hit 13 times since 1902, with the list of pitchers denying Detroit a hit including legends Bob Feller, Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson.

Detroit hadn't been no-hit since Johnson's effort in 1990.

With Garza reaching the milestone for Tampa Bay, the only teams without a no-hitter to their credit are the New York Mets and San Diego Padres.

Garza came close once before, throwing a one-hitter against Florida on June 26, 2008.

With files from The Associated Press