The Tigers, with largely their pitching staff to thank, ended their winning streak with a 10-4 loss to the Texas Rangers.
After an unexpectedly great series against the Yankees, it seemed like they might have an opportunity to test the theory that they perform best against teams over .500. They headed to Arlington to take on the Texas Rangers. To hopefully lead them to another (much-needed) victory, they had Framber Valdez on the mound. The Rangers, meanwhile, were leaning on Nathan Eovaldi.
The Tigers
went 1-2-3 in the top of the first. In the home half, Josh Jung got a one-out single, followed by a single to Ezequiel Duran. Two outs followed, though, to get the Tigers out of the jam.
It was another three-up, three-down outing for the Tigers, so I guess those early-inning home run sprees are looking a little less likely for this game. With one out in the bottom of the inning, Elias Diaz hit a solo home run to put the Rangers on the board first. Alejandro Osuno singled, then Nicky Lopez singled as well. Justin Foscue worked a walk to load the bases. Valdez wasn’t looking great, missing the zone on many of his pitches and just not showing the sharp stuff we see on his better outings. He emphasized this by walking in a run when he gave up a free base to Jung. Duran then hit a sac fly to score Lopez. Valdez finally got the last out of the inning, but the Rangers had a 3-0 lead after two.
The Tigers didn’t do much to help themselves in the third, totally unable to get anything off of Eovaldi and going down in order again. Cam Cauley got a one-out single in the bottom of the inning but was quickly eliminated by a force out off the bat of Diaz. The final out came with no runs scored, which was badly needed by Valdez and the Tigers.
Kevin McGonigle became the first Tigers baserunner of the game with a leadoff walk in the top of the fourth. Three outs in a row followed. Lopes singled to start the home half of the inning. With one out, Jung doubled, bringing another run in. Duran then singled, bringing the Rangers up to 5-0. The Tigers got the next two outs, but they had quite the hill to climb if they were going to keep their streak alive.
They started to chip away with a leadoff home run from Colt Keith to get the fifth underway. With one out, McKinstry singled. Then, after the second out of the inning, Hao-Yu Lee hit the second home run of the inning to put the Tigers right back in the game.
McGongile and Dillon Dingler got back-to-back singles, but a final out ended the inning with no additional runs scored. In the bottom of the inning, Valdez had a badly needed 1-2-3 inning, with a lot of thanks to his teammates, including this insane nab by McKinstry.
Riley Greene got the sixth underway with a leadoff double. That was it for Eovaldi (did not think he would be the first starter to get pulled today, let’s be honest), and was replaced by old friend Tyler Alexander. With one out, Torkelson singled, then one out later, a pinch-hitting Ben Malgeri walked to load the bases. The bases were loaded, and the Rangers went back to their bullpen to get Peyton Gray, who came in to get the final out of the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Valdez was also done, being replaced by Beau Brieske. The final line of the game for Framber was 5.0 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HR on 87 pitches. It was a pretty bad outing for him overall, but he did right the ship towards the end. With one out in the home half, a pinch-hitting Josh Smith homered. Two outs followed, but at the end of six, the Rangers were up 6-0.
McGonigle hit a little dribbler of a single right down the third base line. Doesn’t matter how you do it as long as you get on base. With one out, Kerry Carpenter walked. With two on, the Rangers went back to their bullpen for Robby Ahlstrom. Unfortunately, the Tigers weren’t able to convert their baserunners and left two stranded at the end of the inning. With two outs in the home half, the Tigers returned to the pen to get Drew Sommers to face a pinch-hitting leftie, Evan Carter. Naturally, Carter singled. Diaz then walked (he should have been out, but a check swing that should have been ruled a strike wasn’t). Osuna hit a perfectly placed single in between the infielders to score Carter. Sommers attempted to behead Lopez a couple of times with very high and inside pitches. The at-bat was a long one that Lopes eventually won with a comebacker that Sommers let bounce off his glove and scored another run. Then Lopez stole second. A Josh Smith single scored yet another run and Sommers was done. He had come in to get the final out of the inning and instead allowed three runs to score, which I don’t think is the ideal outcome you want to see from your bullpen. Kenley Jansen replaced him and gave up a walk to Jung, but finally induced the last out of the inning.
Cole Winn was the new Rangers reliever, and that is a spectacular name for a Texas baseball player. With one out, McKinstry doubled, then a Malgeri single brought McKinstry home. The Tigers had to settle for just the one run, but it proved they weren’t counting themselves out yet. Kyle Finnegan came on for the Tigers in the home half. Carter struck again in the eighth with a two-out solo homer. Diaz then doubled. Osuna singled with no one to cover first but Finnegan, and Torkelson wasn’t quite able to get the ball over to his pitcher in time for the out. The Tigers finally got out of the inning, but they had a lot of ground to cover if they were going to make a comeback in the ninth.
Gavin Collyer came in for the ninth and gave up a leadoff double to Dingler. He would be the only baserunner for the inning as the Tigers went down in order after that to end the inning and the game with an unfortunate loss. Thanks to the World Cup, they would get an off day on Friday to recoup before concluding the series over the holiday weekend.
