Rangers Beat Tigers
DETROIT — Bobby Wilson is one of those guys who spend most of their career in the shadows.
But Friday night, backup catcher Wilson found a bit of sunshine and spent some time soaking up the rays.
Sure, it was lefty Cole Hamels and tough Rougned Odor who took most of the spotlight in the Texas Rangers’ 5-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers in a match-up of teams on three-game losing skids.
But an instrumental role was played by Wilson, who has spent time with both Texas and Detroit this year, as the catcher for Hamels and as a batter who got two key hits.
Hamels allowed just one hit over his seven innings — a bloop single near the right field line leading off the bottom of the first — while striking out nine and giving up two walks.
All maestroed by Wilson, who opened spring training with the Rangers but was traded to the Tigers on March 29. He was brought up Detroit when James McCann suffered an early season injury but upon the regular’s return Wilson was traded back to Texas on May 3.
“Obviously winning is first and foremost,” said Wilson, who went over the Detroit hitters with Hamels earlier in the week. “My first job is catching. I was cheering for those guys a few days ago. It was different. It was good to see those guys again. They were good to me.”
“He didn’t tell me too many secrets,” Hamels (4-0) said. “I’ve pitched against those
guys a lot. My job was to get ahead of them, take their aggressiveness out.”
Odor hit a two-out solo home run in the fifth, his fifth, to give Texas a 3-0 lead and put the game out of reach with a two-run double to left center with two out in the ninth following a pair of one-out singles by Elvis Andrus and Wilson plus a botch squeeze bunt.
Hamels is now 5-0 in five starts following Texas losses. His cutter and curve kept Detroit from keying on his fastball as he bested Detroit’s Jordan Zimmermann (5-1).
“That’s what he does,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “His last outing, he was out for 10 days with a groin issue. But early on you could see his timing was back. This is why we got him. He’s our ace, the guy we look to to be our stopper, the guy that stops the slides.”
Lefty Jake Diekman worked the eighth, striking out two, and Sam Dyson finished the game for Texas.
Kinsler greeted Dyson with a line double to extreme left and went to third on an error by shortstop Andrus on Mike Aviles’ ground ball up the middle. Kinsler scored when Miguel Cabrera hit into a double play.
Mitch Moreland singled and scored on a double to right by Andrus. Wilson got a key hit when he reached out for a slow 2-2 curve and punched into left for an RBI single.
“I wasn’t going to give in,” Wilson said.
“I made one mistake,” Zimmermann said “the fastball to Odor. Wilson got an RBI on a curveball that was in the dirt in the other batter’s box and he just kind of threw his bat at it.”
Detroit totaled 12 hits in its last three losses. Zimmerman gave up a walk and seven hits while striking out two in eight innings.
“We could have had better at-bats,” Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. “I wouldn’t say I was overjoyed with our at-bats. We could have done a better job. I think we chased out of the (strike) zone.
“But when you have one hit over eight innings it’s tough to get anything going.”
Zimmermann, the American League Pitcher of the Month for April at 5-0 with a 0.55 ERA, retired the first five batters he faced but allowed three straight hits which produced two Texas runs.
“He pitched eight innings,” Ausmus said. “He gave us a chance to win.”
