Zach McKinstry and Riley Greene each homered and Jack Flaherty exited after tossing five scoreless innings as the Detroit Tigers beat the Texas Rangers 3-1 on Tuesday in Arlington, Texas.
Flaherty (3-4) threw a season-low 60 pitches and allowed two hits and didn’t issue a walk. He struck out four.
Alex Faedo, Shelby Miller and Tyler Holton followed Flaherty before Jason Foley retired the only batter he faced for his 12th save. Detroit has won three straight and eight of its past 11.
Texas avoided being shut out when, in the ninth inning, Josh Smith scored from second base on Ezequiel Duran’s two-out single against Holton.
Rangers shortstop Corey Seager drew a walk in the sixth inning to extend his on-base streak to a career-high 27 games. His hitting streak ended at 16 games after he went 0-for-3.
The Rangers lost 2-1 on Monday in the opener of the three-game series and have gone 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position over the past two games.
McKinstry gave the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the second inning. After Colt Keith singled against Texas starter Dane Dunning (4-4) with one out, McKinstry launched his first homer this season.
McKinstry later tripled in the fourth inning for his third multi-hit game this season.
Flaherty retired the first nine batters he faced before Marcus Semien delivered a leadoff single in the fourth inning.
Detroit added to its lead with two outs in the fifth on Greene’s solo homer to right field. The 365-foot blast was Greene’s 11th homer this season.
Dunning allowed three runs on four hits over five innings. He walked one and struck out four.
Detroit maintained its shutout after Flaherty departed by escaping jams in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Smith flied out against Faedo with runners at second and third to end the sixth inning, and Miller struck out Jonah Heim with two runners on in the seventh.
Miller was activated from the 15-day injured list prior to the game after missing three-plus weeks due to ulnar nerve inflammation.
–Field Level Media