Eric Haase hit a three-run home run and Victor Reyes drove in two runs as the Detroit Tigers completed a four-game sweep of the visiting Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon.
The Tigers have won seven in a row to start the second half.
Closer Gregory Soto took the ball for the third consecutive day and closed out the Rangers for his 11th save. Soto breezed through the heart of the Rangers’ lineup with two strikeouts and needed only 12 pitches in the inning. Kyle Funkhouser (4-0) pitched two innings in relief to earn the win.
The Tigers were only 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position but led 6-1 before the Rangers plated three in the top of the sixth. Texas scored a pair on a laser single to left by shortstop Isiah Kiner-Falefa with the bases loaded.
The Rangers answered the Tigers’ run in the bottom of the seventh with one of their own in the eighth and brought the middle of their order — 2-3-4 hitters — to the plate in the top of the ninth.
Haase crushed a 413-foot, three-run home run to left center field in the bottom of the first and Detroit plated another in the second on a sacrifice fly from left fielder Reyes.
Reyes pounded the second of the Tigers’ back-to-back homers in the fourth. Shortstop Zack Short, batting eighth, went yard for the second day in a row, yanking a fastball over the bullpen in left. He tagged Mike Foltynewicz (2-10) for one of the team’s three home runs with one out, where the right-hander’s day ended with five earned runs on his record.
Reyes also scored a run in the seventh on Robbie Grossman’s single to left.
Rangers third baseman Andy Ibanez got Texas on the board in the fourth inning with a run-scoring single to score designated hitter Joey Gallo, who was hit by a pitch. Gallo walked and scored in the sixth on David Dahl’s single.
Detroit hits the road Friday to open a three-game series with the Kansas City Royals. The Rangers open a series at Houston.
–Field Level Media