Jack Flaherty was clubbed for four home runs while Kerry Carpenter was the only Tiger to handle Jacob deGrom.
Jack Flaherty had a pretty awful outing, while Jacob deGrom looked fairly vintage on Saturday night. The result was a pretty easy victory for the Rangers as they evened the three-game set at a game apiece.
Things were not auspicious for a good start for Jack Flaherty early on. He’s actually pitched really well if you only look at what he’s done the first two times through opposing lineups. However, that isn’t how it works and he’s had a few outings where he ran out of gas and got hit around a bit before A.J. Hinch went to the pen.
He would have to reverse that tendency in this one, as Josh Smith led off the game with a solo shot off a Flaherty slider down in the zone. Wyatt Langford smoked a first-pitch fastball to left, but Zach McKinstry was there for the first out. Flaherty fell behind Corey Seager, and came back with a fastball that was torched out over the big wall in right center field. 2-0 Rangers.
Flaherty struck out Joc Pederson, but then walked Marcus Semien and this was shaping up to be a long first inning. Fortunately, Adolis Garcia grounded out, but the right-hander did need 27 pitches.
Facing your Detroit Tigers was none other than the greatest pitcher of all time. Not in terms of career numbers, of course, but peak Jacob deGrom remains the gold standard for pitching. Things are a little different since Tommy John surgery cost him most of the 2022 and 2023 seasons, but now healthy, the flame-throwing right-hander still has triple digits in the tank, and his command remains freakishly precise for that kind of gas.
Kerry Carpenter was not impressed, promptly returning serve on a 1-2 high fastball at 98 mph. Tigers leadoff slugger knocked one out to right-center field to cut the Rangers’ lead in half. DeGrom then dispatched three straight Tigers on strikes, though Colt Keith was robbed by a very low called strike three.
Flaherty’s troubles immediately continued as he fell behind 3-0, and then fired a fastball down in the middle of the zone in a 3-1 count only to see Evan Carter line a shot just over the right field wall to lead off the second. 3-1 Rangers. Flaherty retired the next three in order, but only with a lot of help from a good running catch at the wall in right center field from Riley Greene.
DeGrom continued his Tarik Skubal impression in the bottom of the second and just overpowered Spencer Torkelson, Zach McKinstry, and Trey Sweeney all swinging.
In the third, Flaherty’s struggles to locate continued and he got himself in trouble again and again by falling behind hitters throughout his whole outing. The Rangers are off to a rough start offensively, but you know a breakout is coming with the lineup, and it may have started today.
Flaherty walked Langford to start the inning. He got Corey Seager to fly out, but again fell behind against Joc Pederson. He eventually worked back to a full count, and again Tomas Nido, needing a strike, called for the fastball, and unfortunately the fastball just sucked tonight. Pederson hammered a two-run shot to right for their fourth homer and it was 5-1. Flaherty got out of the third with no further trouble, but lefty Sean Guenther was already warming in the bullpen.
There was an amusing moment in the bottom of the third as the broadcast showed Jace Jung in the previous half inning drawing a tic-tac-toe board in the dirt next to third base, knowing his brother would be out there the next inning.
Less amusing was a flyout deep to right center field from Gleyber Torres and a Jace Jung strikeout. Carpenter was up to the task, battling deGrom and eventually bouncing an outside pitch past the shifted infield into left field for a single. Torres got a slider up and dumped a single off the end of the bat into left field, and the Tigers had a little something cooking with two outs.
Colt Keith worked into a 2-0 count, and he probably got a payback call on the second pitch, a slider right at the bottom of the zone. DeGrom fired a fastball and a slider on the outer third to even the count. Keith held up on a slider down, but then grounded another one to first to end the inning.
With Flaherty at 73 pitches and ineffective anyway, A.J. Hinch turned to his well-rested bullpen instead in the fourth. That made this the shortest outing by a starter this season so far. Lefty Sean Guenther got a quick pair of groundouts, and then Zach McKinstry made a fine running catch on a slicing drive to left from Josh Jung to end the half inning.
Riley Greene made it a 5-2 Rangers lead by starting the bottom half off, working a full count and then lifting a deGrom slider over the left field wall for his 9th home run. Torkelson and McKinstry worked deep counts to run deGrom’s pitch count into the 70’s, but they both struck out, as did Trey Sweeney on 99 mph gas to end the inning.
Guenther got a pop-out to start the fifth, but he walked Wyatt Langford. Walks in front of Corey Seager are a big mistake, and the shortstop made him pay by hammering a double to the center field wall. 6-2 Rangers. Guenter walked Pederson as well, and this is not the Guenther we’re used to seeing. AJ had seen enough of that, and with a few right-handed hitters coming up, Chase Lee entered the game after being recalled today in place of Casey Mize, who hit the IL with a left hamstring strain retroactive to May 9.
Lee immediately walked Adolis Garcia, and then Adolis Garcia lifted a sacrifice fly to make it 7-2, and then Evan Carter bounced one back to Lee to end the inning. Tomas Nido led off the bottom of the fifth with a single, but Jace Jung lifted a shallow fly out and Kerry Carpenter bounced into a double play. On to the sixth.
Chase Lee allowed a one-out single to Jung in the top of the sixth, then struck out Josh Smith. Langford fought through a long at-bat, but Lee spotted a perfect fastball at the bottom of the zone to freeze him.
DeGrom walked Gleyber Torres to open the bottom half of the inning, and gave way to southpaw side-armer Hoby Milner. The right-hander got a double-play ball off the bat of Keith. Riley Greene grounded out and this one seemed like a foregone conclusion.
Corey Seager amplified that impression by clubbing another homer over the right center field wall, this time off of Tyler Holton to start the seventh. Holton got the next three outs, punching out Garcia to end the inning, but his early-season home run troubles continue.
Torkelson struck out on a bad call to start the bottom half. McKinstry followed by lining a single to right field. I thought Hinch might pinch-hit Javy Báez for Sweeney, but the Rangers had a right-hander warming anyway. Sweeney took some wild hacks and struck out, and Bruce Bochy strode to the mound to go tough RHP Shawn Armstrong. Nido grounded out, and we were on to the eighth.
Holton allowed a Travis Haggerty single to open the inning, and Hinch turned to RHP John Brebbia for his first outing since coming off the injured list. Brebbia retired the next three in order, punching out Josh Jung along the way.
In the bottom of the eighth, Kerry Carpenter tripled the opposite way with one out, and scored on a Torres ground out to make it 8-3 Rangers. Colt Keith lined out to Duran at shortstop to end the inning.
Brebbia still looked a little rusty in the top of the ninth as he leaked two more runs. It was 10-3, and the bar was just about empty by the time we got to last call.
Right-hander Luke Jackson took over to close this one out. Justyn-Henry Malloy pinch-hit for Riley Greene and battled through a long at-bat to a walk. Andy Ibáñez bounced into a double play, but Zach McKinstry walked to at least burn Jackson for Sunday’s finale. Trey Sweeney took a called strike three at the bottom of the zone to end it.
The Tigers fall to 26-14, tied as of this writing with the LA Dodgers. They will look for another series victory on Sunday at 1:40 p.m. ET as RHP Reese Olson takes on RHP Nate Eovaldi in what could be a pretty good pitching duel.