Jeimer Candelario homered for the first time since May 18 and the visiting Detroit Tigers handed All-Star Kyle Gibson his first loss this season while defeating the Texas Rangers 5-3 on Wednesday.
Robbie Grossman reached base four times and drove in two runs for the Tigers, who have won six of their past eight games.
Joey Gallo homered twice and drove in all three Rangers runs. The All-Star has 10 blasts in his last 10 games and 23 overall.
Detroit starter Casey Mize gave up Gallo’s solo homers during his four innings of work. He allowed four hits and struck out two. Kyle Funkhouser (3-0) tossed two scoreless innings to pick up the win and All-Star Gregory Soto pitched the last two innings for his seventh save.
Gibson was charged with all five Detroit runs in 6 1/3 innings. He allowed eight hits while striking out seven and walking two.
Akil Baddoo led off the game with a single, moved up on a groundout and scored on Grossman’s single.
Gallo clobbered a 2-0 pitch over the right-field wall to tie the game in the second inning.
Candelario ripped an opposite-field blast with two out in the fourth to put Detroit back on top. It is his fifth homer of the season.
Gallo victimized Mize again in the bottom of the inning. Gallo crushed a fastball an estimated 462 feet over the right-field fence.
Detroit had three hits in the fifth inning but didn’t score.
The Tigers then took a 5-2 lead in the seventh.
Singles by Nomar Mazara and Harold Castro put runners on the corners with one out in the seventh. Gibson came out after he walked Jake Rogers to load the bases. Pinch hitter Miguel Cabrera hit a comebacker that bounced off reliever Joely Rodriguez’s glove for an RBI infield single.
Jonathan Schoop hit a bloop that struck the right-field line, bringing in Castro. Rodriguez then walked Grossman on a 3-2 pitch to force in another run.
Detroit’s Erasmo Ramirez gave up singles to Brock Holt, Eli White and Nate Lowe, loading the bases with no outs in the eighth. Soto recorded an out before Gallo walked on four pitches to force in a run.
Soto then struck out the next two batters to preserve Detroit’s two-run advantage.
–Field Level Media