Homers Power Rangers Over Tigers

Three different Texas hitters go deep to support Glenn Otto's sixth victory.

Andrew Dieb-USA TODAY Sports

The Texas Rangers hit three home runs, but had to fend off a late rally to beat the Detroit Tigers 7-6 on Friday night at Globe Life Field.

The Rangers (58-67) won their second straight game, their fifth in their last seven games and started a five-game homestand by getting closer to last season’s win total of 62.

Glenn Otto (6-8), who only went five innings, pitched well enough to take his second victory of August. But the Rangers’ red-hot offense — coming off a 16-4 win over Colorado on Wednesday — put him in the driver’s seat from the start.

In addition, Texas is now 7-4 under interim manager Tony Beasley.

But it wasn’t an easy game to win. José Leclerc, staked with a three-run lead in the ninth and seeking a save, walked Jeimer Candelario to lead off the inning. After striking out Akil Baddoo for the first out, he gave up a two-run home run to Riley Greene, who had already singled, tripled and driven in two runs, to shave the lead to a run.

Victor Reyes followed that with a single to put the tying run on base. Leclerc regrouped, fanning Javier Báez and Harold Castro to end it.

The Rangers homered their way to a 4-0 lead after the first two innings. After Corey Seager grounded into a double play in the bottom of the first, Nathaniel Lowe followed him with a solo home run to deep left field, his 21st of the season, putting the Rangers up 1-0.

In the bottom of the second, Leody Taveras and Mark Mathias hit back-to-back singles with one out, which set up third baseman Ezequiel Duran for his fourth homer of the season, a three-run shot to left that gave Texas a 4-0 lead.

After the Tigers posted two runs off Otto in the top of the third, the Rangers added three more runs in the bottom half. Taveras had an RBI single to score Adolis García, followed by a two-run shot by Mathias, his third with the Rangers since joining the organization earlier this month the Matt Bush trade. The Rangers were up 7-2.

Mathias had a three-hit game, the first of his MLB career.

“The last week or so the at-bats have been good,” Rangers interim manager Tony Beasley said. “We’re grinding, They’re not missing mistake pitches. Nate (Lowe) has led the charge offensively, but everyone has been contributing. It’s been an onslaught from top to bottom and the bottom half of our order really came through tonight. That’s how you want it to be, and we’ve had that the last five six days.”

That explosion chased off Tigers starter Tyler Alexander (3-8) after three innings. The TCU product gave up eight hits, seven runs (earned) and one walk. He also struck out three.

Otto, staked to a multi-run lead for most of the game, gave up five hits, four runs and two walks. He also struck out three. He allowed two runs in the third on RBI singles by Greene and Castro.

In the fifth, he allowed two runs on an RBI triple by Greene. He hit a line drive to the right-center field gap that García failed to catch on a dive. Taveras backed him up and got the ball to Semien as Baddoo scored. Semien tried to cut down Greene at third, but his throw to Duran was low, got away from the rookie and Greene scores. Semien was charged with a throwing error.

Taylor Hearn and Jonathan Hernández combined for three innings of scoreless relief before handing the ball to Leclerc.

García extended his hitting streak to 22 games with a slow-rolling single down the third-base line in the third inning. He tied former Rangers catcher Jim Sundberg for the seventh-longest streak in franchise history.

The Rangers continue their three-game series with the Tigers on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. at Globe Life Field. Dallas Keuchel will make his first start with the Rangers after signing a minor-league contract last month. Kohei Arihara is the scheduled starter for Sunday’s finale.

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