Mike Minor makes it look easy as Texas Rangers beat Detroit Tigers
Mike Minor makes it look easy.
The Texas Rangers’ ace threw his second complete game in 108 pitches to stifle the Detroit Tigers 4-1 Wednesday night at Comerica Park.
Minor last threw a complete game against the Angels on April 16.
Against the Tigers, Minor cruised through Minor outlasted Tigers’ left-hander Matthew Boyd, who struck out 11 Rangers in seven innings.
The Rangers homered three times in the fifth against Boyd to build more than enough of a lead for Minor, who struck out seven, including
In the ninth, the first two batters reached on a single and walk but Minor got Brandon Dixon swinging with a fastball and induced a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Rangers homer thrice in fifth inning
Willie Calhoun, Jeff Mathis and Danny Santana each hit solo homers in the fifth inning to push the lead to 4-1. It’s the first time the Rangers have hit three homers in a game since May 20.
The last time Texas hit three homers in an inning was Sept 2, 2018 against the Twins in Arlington. The last time Texas did it on the road was Sept. 19, 2013 at Tampa Bay.
Rangers power had lagged
The Rangers had struggled to put together much power for the last month. Until the fifth inning on Wednesday. In fact, they had hit two or fewer homers in 34 consecutive games (May 21-June 25) until hitting three in one inning against the Tigers. That’s their longest such stretch in a season since they went the final 49 games in 2014 with two or fewer homers in a game.
Willie Calhoun scores on sac fly from second
Calhoun scored on a sacrifice fly from second base in the third inning. Ronald Guzman deep drive forced center fielder JaCoby Jones up against the wall in dead center and Calhoun took advantage. He was rounding third before short stop Niko Goodrum received the relay throw in shallow center. His throw home was way off and Calhoun scored easily to give Texas a 1-0 lead. Calhoun had two doubles and a homer on Wednesday.
Locke St. John makes debut
It had been four days since right-hander Locke St. John was called up from Triple-A Nashville. He finally got into a game when he took over for starter Jesse Chavez with one out and none on in the seventh. St. John retired both batters he faced.
“We’ve been dying to get him in there,” Woodward said. “I’ve felt like a bad manager not getting him in there before today.”
Woodward was especially impressed with St. John’s slider for a strike on his first pitch.
“He looked really comfortable out there. It didn’t look like he had any fear in his throw and he executed his pitches like we knew he could,” he said.
This story was originally published June 26, 2019 at 8:35 PM.
