Corey Seager made up for a frustrating start to his night by doubling home a pair of runners with two outs in the eighth inning to provide the winning runs in the Texas Rangers’ 2-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Friday in the opener of a three-game set in Arlington, Texas.
Texas has won three of its past four games, while the Tigers dropped their season-high fifth straight outing.
Kyle Higashioka doubled off Detroit reliever Tommy Kahnle (1-3) with one out in the eighth to start the winning rally. He was replaced by pinch runner Cody Freeman, who moved to third on a groundout by Heim, then Josh Smith walked to bring Seager to the plate with a runner in scoring position for the third time in the game.
Seager worked the count to 3-1 before ripping a double to right-center field that got just under the glove of the diving Wenceel Perez and rolled to the wall, driving home Freeman and Smith.
Chris Martin (1-5), the third of four Rangers pitchers, worked the eighth to earn his first win this season, and Robert Garcia allowed one hit in the ninth to earn his seventh save.
Both teams managed just four hits each, with Higashioka leading the Rangers’ ledger with a single and a double and Spencer Torkelson pacing Detroit with two singles.
The Rangers threatened in the third inning, putting runners on the corners against Tigers starter Reese Olson on a single by Higashioka and a throwing error by Detroit’s Javier Baez that allowed Jonah Heim to reach first. But Olson coaxed a flyout from Smith and struck out Seager to end the inning.
Detroit had a chance to take the lead in the fifth after Zach McKinstry reached third base on a two-out single by Baez. Baez also got into scoring position by stealing second base, but Texas starter Patrick Corbin got out of the jam when Gleyber Torres flied out to center field.
Heim led off the sixth with a double that chased Olson after five-plus innings. Tyler Holton took over for the Tigers and kept the game scoreless by striking out Seager and getting Marcus Semien to fly out.
–Field Level Media
