Wilson’s grand slam pushes Rangers to three-game sweep of Tigers

Bobby Wilson hit the first grand slam of his career Sunday in a seven-run seventh inning to rally the Texas Rangers to an 8-3 victory and a three-game sweep of the Detroit Tigers.

Delino DeShields followed Wilson’s unlikely homer with an unlikely one of his own to cap the winning rally.

Martin Perez didn’t factor in the decision after allowing two runs, both in a 37-pitch third inning, in six innings. He struck out seven and walked five, but allowed only two hits.

Hitting: The Rangers managed only three hits in seven innings against Justin Verlander, and Elvis Andrus had two of them. He and Bobby Wilson singled to start the third, putting runners at first and third with no outs, but Verlander escaped. ... Once he exited after seven innings, the Rangers’ offense broke loose. They sent 12 batters to the plate in a seven-run eighth, scoring on an Adrian Beltre single and a Ian Desmond sacrifice fly. Bobby Wilson followed with first career grand slam three batters later, and Delino DeShields made it back-to-back shots with a wall-scraper to left.　

Pitching: Martin Perez tossed scoreless innings in the first and second and quickly got the first two outs of the third on seven pitches, but the next five batters reached, three via walk, and two scored. It took Perez 30 pitches to get the final out. He responded by throwing three straight scoreless innings and finished two hits allowed, five walks and seven strikeouts. ... Tom Wilhelmsen worked a scoreless seventh for the win. ... Sam Dyson had a scoreless eighth, but had to get Jarrod Saltalamacchia to ground out with the bases loaded. ... Alex Claudio allowed a run in the ninth in mop-up duty.

This story was originally published May 8, 2016 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Wilson’s grand slam pushes Rangers to three-game sweep of Tigers."