One night after being mauled by the Houston Astros, the Rangers traveled to Detroit and tamed the Tigers by a 3-1 tally on Thursday evening, following late-inning heroics from Ezequiel Duran.
It looked rough for the Rangers, however, and when Duran entered the batter’s box in the top of the final frame, his teammates had only combined for three hits in the game.
Trailing 1-0, Corey Seager drew a 3-2 walk to lead off the ninth off of Detroit closer Gregory Soto, who has 13 saves on the season and an ERA of 3.00. Adolis Garcia grounded out to push Seager to second base. Soto then plunked Kole Calhoun with a 96.4 mph fastball, giving the Rangers runners at first and second. Charlie Culberson came into the contest to pinch-run for Calhoun.
Jonah Heim struck out on a 2-2 count next at the dish, leaving the Rangers one out away from being blanked on the scoreboard.
Nathaniel Lowe then drew a 3-1 walk to juice the sacks and up came Duran in just his 47th career big-league at-bat (with an average of .319). Duran paddled the second Soto pitch he saw down the first baseline for a three-run triple and 3-1 lead.
“He said he feels really, really good about it,” said Duran’s translator, Raul Cardenas. “He wants to thank God for it. Before he went up to bat, he was thinking, you know, that was a good situation for him, and he wanted to thank God for that.”
Texas ace Martin Perez was again dandy on the mound and allowed just one run on eight hits while walking none and striking out five. Perez did not earn a decision in the contest, but Rangers skipper Chris Woodward spoke glowingly about the 31-year-old lefty.
“Just maybe one mistake to [Javier] Báez (resulting in a run-scoring double) but outside of that, not much hit hard,” Woodward told Mlb.com. “… MartÃn was spectacular again.”
Dennis Santana followed Perez on the mound, pitched a spotless bottom eight, and earned the win (running his record to 3-2), and Josh Barlow followed suit with a perfect ninth inning to pick up his 12th save of the year.
The win gives the Rangers a 30-33 record on the season, good for second place in the AL West, nine games back of the Astros, and a game ahead of third-place Los Angeles.
Game two of a four-game series against the Tigers in Detroit is set for June 17, starting at 7:10 EDT. Probable pitchers in the contest are Jon Gray (1-3, 4.85) for Texas and Tarik Skubal (5-3, 2.71) for Detroit.
