Detroit Tigers bats stay quiet, drop third straight to Texas Rangers

This weekend’s series was billed as “big” for the potential playoff chances for the Detroit Tigers, after winning three straight, including the first game of the series against the Texas Rangers, hope was high. It’s probably now safe to put a cap on any hopes of 2015 postseason aspirations in Detroit as the Tigers dropped their third straight to the now second-place AL Wild Card team on Sunday, losing 4-2.

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After scoring 25 runs in two games against the Chicago Cubs earlier this week, the offense went inexplicably quiet at home.  Headed into the series finale, the Tigers had plated just seven runs in three games and didn’t score on Saturday until putting up three in the ninth inning in a failed comeback attempt in the 5-3 loss. They knew runs would be at a premium against new Texas ace Cole Hamels, and they were right.

Starting just his second career game against Detroit, Hamels worked in and out of trouble for much of the game. The Tigers plated a run in the first inning when Ian Kinsler earned a base hit with one out in the first inning. Red-hot Miguel Cabrera pushed him to third with a base hit and Kinsler scored as right fielder Shin-Soo Choo‘s throw sailed into the Tigers’ third base dugout.

The Tigers put two on with two out but were unable to do anymore damage. They also put two men on in the second, fourth and fifth innings against Hamels but were able to tack on just one more run via a Jose Iglesias single that pushed home James McCann.

Hamels ended up going six innings, scattering eight hits on two runs with two walks and two strikeouts.

Matt Boyd started for the Tigers and pitched pretty well, going six innings of five-hit, three-run ball. He walked two and struck out three. He allowed a solo homer from Chris Gimenez to tie the score at 1 in the third inning.

With the Tigers leading 2-1 in the sixth, Mitch Moreland dropped a double that just went fair–perhaps by an inch, allowing two runs to score and gave Texas a lead they would not relinquish.

Tiger-killer Mike Napoli hit a solo homer in the eighth for an insurance run. The homer came off Blaine Hardy which snapped his MLB-leading mark of 37.1 innings without surrendering a home run. It also snapped his streak of 84.2 innings of homer-less innings which stretched back to June 27, 2014.

Don’t rely on your schedules issued in April! The Tigers actually have a game on Monday, traveling to Cincinnati to face the Reds to makeup a June 18 rainout and then back to Detroit for three games with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim beginning Tuesday.

Game time in Cincinnati is 7:08 with Buck Farmer facing rookie Keyvius Samson.

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