Arlington, Texas — What’s frustrating — if anything can be truly frustrating after a road series-winning 9-8 victory against the Texas Rangers, except maybe the last two innings — is that the Tigers haven’t been able to produce this type of offensive performance more frequently this season.
The same team that has been shut out a league-most 17 times and came into Sunday having scored the fewest runs in baseball, scored six-plus runs for the fourth straight game.
The last time the Tigers put together a stretch like that was July 3-6, 2019. With the nine-spot on Sunday, they scored 26 runs in the three games at Globe Life Field and 32 over the last four games.
Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Like, where’s this been?
“Not really,” manager AJ Hinch said. “Our reality is our record. I try not to live in that world. Obviously, we’re a better club than how we’ve played as a whole. We showcase it every now and then and we’re trying to find consistency.
“That kind of reflection is for later. It was just nice to win a series, nice to play well.”
BOX SCORE: Tigers 9, Rangers 8
Credit Joe Jimenez for saving the day. With the Tigers up 9-2 going into the bottom of the eighth inning, he probably thought his services weren’t going to be required.
“I’m proud of him because he’s been asked to do a lot of different things,” Hinch said. “Up seven in the eighth, he probably thought he wasn’t going to pitch. But he kept his edge and was able to do his part.”
His part, in this case, was stopping a runaway train from crashing into the station.
First, reliever Alex Lange didn’t have his usual command. He gave up a single, a walk, two wild pitches, a passed ball and a two-run home run to Kole Calhoun in a three-run eighth inning.
Closer Gregory Soto didn’t have it, either. He walked No. 9 hitter Ezequiel Duran and threw a wild pitch on an 0-2 count to Marcus Semien. Then Semien doubled in one run and Corey Seager hit his second homer of the game on the next pitch — a two-run shot.
Suddenly, it’s a one-run game. And after Nathaniel Lowe’s swinging bunt died right on the first-base line about 10 feet from home plate, the winning run was walking up to the plate.
“It’s a tough game,” Hinch said. “The game is in hand late but we didn’t throw strikes the way we normally do. Lange had that type of inning and Soto, a little mishap here and there and they created an inning.
“That swinging bunt ended it for Soto. I just didn’t like where it was going. Where they were in the order, I wanted Joe to come in and get some swing-and-misses.”
Jimenez’s first challenge was Adolis Garcia. Bubba Thompson, running for Lowe, stole second and the tying run was in scoring position. But Jimenez got leverage on Garcia with a couple of nasty sliders and then blew him away with a 95-mph heater, ending his league-leading hitting streak at 23 games.
Calhoun flew out to center to end the game.
“I ambushed Joe,” Hinch said. “I didn’t give him a lot of time to warm up. I didn’t give him a lot of warning. Things happened pretty fast. But he did what we hoped, he got the swing-and-miss and the fly ball to the big part of the ballpark.”
And, exhale.
“It’s the sport of baseball,” rookie Riley Greene said. “Anything can happen. But the reality is, at the end of the day, we won the game. I feel like none of that other stuff matters. We came out with the win and we took the series.”
The offense scored all nine runs in the first six innings, six against right-handed starter Kohei Arihara. Five different players had multiple-hit games, including Greene, who had two hits and a walk and has now had multi-hit games in six of his last seven.
“I’ve said it from Day 1,” he said. “Our lineup is really good. When we put it together, we can score a lot of runs. You’ve seen that the last couple of days.”
Harold Castro, who was part of the Tigers’ four-game run barrage in 2019, followed up his three-hit game Saturday with a five-RBI effort. He singled home two runs in the fourth inning and drove in three with an opposite-field, bases-loaded double to left in the sixth.
Both of those hits were off left-handed relievers — Brett Martin and Brock Burke. A career .248 hitter against lefties, the left-handed hitting Castro is hitting them at a .339 clip this year (18-for-53).
“Sometimes guys need opportunity in order to succeed or fail,” Hinch said. “This is an opportunity for Harold and he’s stepped up and had really good at-bats. He’s hit some balls pretty hard to the opposite field against lefties, but never really burned anybody as they crept in a little bit and took some hits away from him.
“He got one over someone’s head at an opportune time. With the way the game ended, that at-bat looked bigger and bigger.”
Jeimer Candelario had two hits, including his second homer in two days and his team-leading 12th.
Rookie Kerry Carpenter snapped a 0-for-15 drought with two doubles, a single and an RBI.
And last but not least, Victor Reyes had two hits and extended his hitting streak to 12 games, one shy of his career best.
The nine runs were more support than Tigers starter Drew Hutchison, who earned his first win since July 5, got in his last four starts combined.
“It was a win,” said Hutchison, who blanked the Rangers for five innings before giving up back-to-back homers to Seager and Lowe in the sixth. “We got the win and we won the series. Joe came up really big for us at the end.”
The Tigers made three errors Sunday, but they offset two of them with double-play balls. They turned three double plays in the game and nine in the series.
“The last couple of innings got away from us and we certainly didn’t do ourselves any favors,” Hinch said. “But we got that last out and we’re going home on a happy flight.”
The Tigers are 5-2 since falling a season-low 31 games under .500 on Aug. 19.
cmccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky