Rangers Blast Tigers
DETROIT — Adrian Beltre regained his power stroke right when the Texas Rangers needed an explosion from their veteran slugger.
Beltre hit a pair of two-run home runs and the Rangers belted five homers to overpower the slumping Detroit Tigers 10-5 on Saturday at Comerica Park.
Beltre was batting .160 in his previous 50 at-bats before his game-tying homer in the sixth. He drilled another the following inning for his 28th career multi-homer game.
“The last couple of weeks, we haven’t been swinging the bat well, including myself,” Beltre said. “I think I’ve been the guy that’s probably been the worst.
“But we know we have the kind of offense that when we all click and start doing the little things, we’re going to be really good.”
Rangers manager Jeff Banister figured Beltre would bust out his slump with a bang.
“Any time Beltre shows up in the batter’s box or on a baseball field, you look for special things to happen,” Banister said. “He’s a special player, does incredible things and is monster strong.
“When he gets the barrel to it, it’s loud. We’ve seen two-homer games from him before and you know to expect special things any given time from Beltre.”
Rougned Odor and Nomar Mazara blasted first-inning homers and Mitch Moreland delivered
a go-ahead, two-run shot during a five-run sixth for the Rangers.
Texas starter A.J. Griffin left the game with right shoulder stiffness after giving up Nick Castellanos’ two-out, bases-loaded single in the third. He was charged with three runs.
“A couple of pitches earlier he was kind of shaking his arm a little bit,” Banister said. “We didn’t want to push it anymore and he didn’t want to push it anymore.”
Anthony Ranaudo (1-0) pitched 2 1/3 innings after Griffin departed to pick up the win in his season debut. Ranaudo, who allowed two runs, was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock on Friday.
Shawn Tolleson got the final out after the Tigers loaded the bases in the ninth for his 10th save.
Ian Kinsler smacked a two-run homer for Detroit, which has lost five straight. Miguel Cabrera added four hits and a run scored.
“The offense wasn’t the issue today,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “We scored five runs, had the lead. It should be enough.”
Detroit starter Mike Pelfrey entered with a 0-4 record and promptly gave up home runs to Odor and Mazara. The home crowd derisively cheered when he finally got an out but Pelfrey then settled down until the sixth.
Anthony Gose’s RBI triple in the second got one of those runs back and Castellanos’ single the following inning put Detroit in front 3-2.
Kinsler ripped a high fastball off Ranaudo for his sixth homer in the fourth to make it 5-2.
Texas erased the deficit with its first three batters in the sixth. Odor singled, Mazara doubled him in and Beltre unloaded his first homer of the game to knock Pelfrey out.
Pelfrey has a tenuous hold on his starting spot.
“We don’t have a ton of options,” Ausmus said. “That’s the thing. If there’s a good change to be made, we will make a good change. We’ll have to decide if that’s the case.”
The Rangers were not finished. Three batters later, Moreland ripped an opposite-field shot off Kyle Ryan (0-1) to give Texas a 7-5 lead.
Beltre’s second home run, this one off Justin Wilson, increased the Rangers’ advantage to four runs in the seventh.
Delino DeShields’ sacrifice fly in the ninth brought home the final run.
