Arlington, Texas — Only two more days left in this misbegotten month for the Tigers.
It started with crippling injuries to their best hitter (Riley Greene) and best pitcher (Eduardo Rodriguez), which triggered a slog of nine straight losses. The injuries have continued to pile up and so have the losses, even with a stretch of better baseball.
They fell to 8-17 in the month (34-45 on the season) Wednesday, taking a 10-2 drubbing from the American League West-leading Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field.
“We have a chance to split a series against a really good team (Thursday),” said manager AJ Hinch, anxious to put this one in the rear-view. “Tonight is a night to forget.”
But faces up. Better days are ahead. Lefty starter Tarik Skubal, out all year recovering from flexor tendon surgery, threw 68 pitches over four innings in his latest rehab start for Triple-A Toledo. He gave up a pair of unearned runs and three hits, but struck out four and his fastball was sitting at 95 mph and hit 97.
Rodriguez is scheduled to make a rehab start for Toledo Thursday.
By the first week of July, it’s possible one or both could be back in the rotation.
Pitchers Beau Brieske and Alex Faedo are also nearing the end of their healing time. Both could end up fortifying a overly taxed bullpen if the rotation gets whole.
More: BOX SCORE: Rangers 10, Tigers 2
Greene and outfielder Akil Baddoo (out since June 10 with a right quad strain) should be starting their rehab assignments fairly soon, as well.
This is a tough league to compete in short-handed, as the Tigers have shown. It certainly didn’t feel like a fair fight Wednesday.
The Rangers ambushed rookie lefty Joey Wentz literally from his first pitch.
Marcus Semien slugged the first-pitch Wentz threw, a 92-mph fastball, into left field for a double. Corey Seager hit his fourth pitch into right field for a double. Before the first inning ended, the Rangers sent 10 hitters to the plate, banged out five hits and scored four runs.
More: Tigers’ Boyd undergoes Tommy John surgery; Mize passes 12-month checkup
Two of the runs were unearned because of a throwing error by Zack Short at third base. First baseman Tyler Nevin couldn’t come up with the scoop.
The Rangers hit a pair of solo home runs in the third inning – Josh Jung and Ezequiel Duran.
Ambushing pitchers is what the Rangers do. It was the 20th time they’ve scored at least 10 runs in a game. The best way to neutralize their offense is to gain count leverage and to do that, you need to attack the strike zone early. Which, in turns, feeds into their strength.
A vicious cycle that Hinch doesn’t completely buy into.
More: Watch: Tigers prospect Colt Keith homers in Triple-A debut
“They hit mistakes,” Hinch said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with challenging the strike zone. I think it has to do with the quality of the pitch. You have to win the game over the plate. And if you can’t, you run into some really tough nights.
“It doesn’t mean you vacate the strike zone against these guys. They can be pitched to. But quality needs to be there. If it is not, you pay for it.”
Wentz soldiered into the fifth inning, not insignificant given the heavy workload the bullpen has carried through this month (109 innings before Wednesday, second most in baseball).
Rangers slugger Adolis Garcia took another bite out the Tigers, too. He blasted his 20th homer of the season off reliever Garrett Hill, a two-run blast in the sixth. He homered in each of the first three games in the series.
Garcia ended up with three hits, including an RBI double off Hill in the seventh.
His last hit led to the ultimate indignity for the Tigers − the dreaded position player pitching. Jonathan Schoop, who has pestered manager Hinch to use him in those situations, got his wish. He ended the seventh inning, getting Jung to fly out to the track in center.
Schoop, who hit 86 mph and was throwing 78 mph changeups, pitched a scoreless eighth inning, too, giving up only a single to Mitch Garver.
Catcher Jake Rogers, borrowing Eric Haase’s outfielder glover, played left field in the eighth so that Hinch could get Javier Baez out of the blowout game. Zach McKinstry moved from left field to shortstop.
It was that kind of night.
The Tigers efforts to fight back into the game were hamstrung by the absences of Greene and Baddoo, both left-handed hitters. With Nick Maton back in Triple-A, they were left with just two left-handed bats against Rangers’ right-handed starter Dane Dunning, who blanked the Tigers for 8-plus innings.
One of those lefties, McKinstry, got two of the four hits Detroit mustered against him. Kerry Carpenter, the other lefty, hit a two-out, two-run homer off him in the ninth.
“That’s just our reality,” Hinch said. “It’s where we’re at now. We still could’ve put up some better at-bats. But it’s hard with these guys. That big first inning took a lot out of our group and Dunning settled in and made pitches and we didn’t really have a counterpunch to him.”
Miguel Cabrera was ejected from the game in the fifth inning by first base umpire Ben May. Cabrera, as he often does, playfully asked for an appeal on a checked swing. May rung him up, indicating that he swung through the two-strike pitch.
Cabrera, as he was walking back to the dugout, waved his hand dismissively and May ejected him.
It was that kind of night.
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky