ARLINGTON, Texas — The last time the Tigers were on the verge of returning to a healthy, five-man starting rotation (Monday), Matthew Boyd blew out his left elbow.
The snake keeps biting.
On the day the Tigers optioned Joey Wentz back to Triple-A Toledo in expectation of possibly both Tarik Skubal and Eduardo Rodriguez being activated at some point next week, right-hander Reese Olson took a line drive off his left knee with two outs in the second inning Thursday.
The ball left Josh Smith’s bat with an exit velocity of 103 mph and Olson went down in pain immediately. He did walk off on his own power, which was encouraging, and the Tigers initial report was that it was a left knee contusion.
It would be a rare and deserving break for this beleaguered pitching staff if Olson didn’t have to miss a start.
Say this for the Tigers, they don’t cower in the face of adversity. Just like they did on Monday after Boyd went out, they bowed their necks and won a baseball game.
Powered by a two-home run, four-RBI day by Spencer Torkelson, the Tigers earned a split of the four-game series with the AL West Division-leading Texas Rangers with an 8-5 win at Globe Life Field.
Torkelson’s line drive home run off the left-field foul pole in the fifth gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead. His three-run blast in a four-run eighth inning, also to left field, blew open a one-run game. It was his first career multi-homer game. He now has 11 home runs on the season.
The Tigers did a lot of damage with two strikes, which was a strong adjustment after they’d struck out eight times in the first five innings against Rangers’ lefty starter Cody Bradford.
A pair of two-strike, two-out RBI hits in the second inning — a triple by Jake Marisnick and a single by Matt Vierling — plus Torkelson’s first home run, gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead after five innings.
But the Rangers don’t ever seem to stop hitting home runs. They hit nine of them in this four-game series.
Ezequiel Duran homered off lefty Tyler Holton in the fourth inning, his third straight game with a home run. Then in the sixth, Leody Taveras lined one into the seats off Mason Englert to tie the game.
The Tigers regained the lead with another 0-2 hit. Andy Ibanez, the former Ranger, poked an RBI single with two strikes in the seventh. And after Javier Báez followed with his second single of the game, the Tigers had the bases loaded with no outs and great chance to extend the lead.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy, with left-handed hitting Kerry Carpenter coming up, brought in lefty reliever John King. Tigers skipper AJ Hinch had right-handed hitters Eric Haase and Tyler Nevin available on the bench but he struck with Carpenter.
Carpenter struck out and Jonathan Schoop hit into a fast, inning-ending double play.
It seemed like a potentially game-shifting moment. It was not.
With yet another 0-2 RBI, the Tigers extended the lead to 5-3 off King in the eighth. After Jake Rogers doubled, Hinch let left-handed hitting Zach McKinstry bat against King and he slashed an 0-2 single to right.
After Vierling walked, Torkelson ended the drama, winning an eight-pitch at-bat off King, launching a 2-2 changeup 356 feet into the seats.
Things got dicey in the bottom of the ninth. Alex Lange gave up a single and a pair of walks, the second, on four pitches to Travis Jankowski, forced in a run. A second run scored on a sacrifice fly by Nathaniel Lowe. That brought up Adolis Garcia, who had homered in three straight games, representing the tying run.
Lange got him to line out to second base.
