Seventeen hits. Three strikeouts. All night. The Rangers put every pitch they saw in play Thursday and buried the Tigers 10-4 at Globe Life Field, and friends, that is how you open a homestand in Texas.
Elias Díaz set the tone in the second, launching a Framber Valdez pitch 414 feet to left-center at 102.3 mph for his fourth homer. He added a double, walked, scored twice, and — hold this thought for the bottom of the page — hit the single hardest ball of the night. Valdez never recovered for Detroit: nine hits and five earned runs in five innings.
Then the bench got greedy. Josh Smith pinch-hit in the sixth and yanked his first home run of the season 406 feet at 104.1 mph. Evan Carter pinch-hit a single in the seventh, stayed in, and crushed a 104.4 mph, 422-foot bomb to dead center in the eighth — his seventh. Two pinch-hitters, two homers, both over 104 off the bat. Everything really is bigger here, including the bench.
Nathan Eovaldi gave Texas exactly what it needed: five innings, nine strikeouts, one walk, three runs — solo damage from Colt Keith and a two-run shot by Hao-Yu Lee — and the win. The lineup did the rest: Josh Jung reached four times with two RBIs, Alejandro Osuna and Nicky Lopez banged out three hits apiece, and Texas went 5-for-11 with runners in scoring position. That’s a 7-8-9 of Díaz, Osuna, Lopez combining for eight hits. The bottom of the order ate.
The loss in Cleveland Wednesday stung, but this club has won six of seven and sits 45-43, sharing the AL West lead with Seattle, who insist on matching us win for win. Day off Friday, then the Tigers come back Saturday for the Fourth of July — per the club’s homestand release, there will be a 12-foot glass of beer on the concourse. God bless Texas.
Longhorn Line: Elias Díaz, 112.0 mph — and it was a lineout to shortstop in the fifth. Hardest-hit ball of the game, right into a glove. The man homered, doubled, and STILL got robbed of his best swing. Baseball owes him one.
