Detroit – Before the Tigers’ Mother’s Day matinee Sunday , manager AJ Hinch was asked what traits he thinks he’s gotten from his mother Becky.
“If you are going to use this, I would say consistency,” he said, sheepishly. “If you’re not going to use this, I would say stubbornness.”
Becky Hinch has ingrained into her son equal and effective amounts of both and they will serve him well after the Tigers were drubbed for the second straight game by the Texas Rangers, 6-1, dropping their first home series of the season before a crowd of 36,138 at Comerica Park.
BOX SCORE: Rangers 6, Tigers 1
“If you don’t see me too high during our highs, you’re not going to see me too low after a couple of (losses),” he said. “This is all part of the ebbs and flows of competing at this level. It doesn’t make it OK. I wish we would’ve played better today, I wish we would’ve jumped on these guys.
“But we will be ready for tomorrow.”
That has been his consistent and stubborn message from day one in Detroit. This one is over, can’t change it. Move forward. The most important game is the next one. That’s been part of the team’s DNA certainly since the second half of last season.
“We haven’t dwelled on losses all season,” catcher Dillon Dingler said. “So I hope we come back tomorrow, clean slate against the Red Sox. Turn the page.”
Reese Olson will be glad to turn the page. The Rangers had his number, scoring three times and knocking him out of the game after four innings.
“I will give (the Rangers) kudos today, they put some good swings on some balls,” Dingler said. “I thought he did a good job. I know he wishes he had a couple back but I thought they swung it well.”
The Rangers’ plan was to attack Olson’s off-speed pitches, disregarding the fact that the changeup and slider are his best pitches.
Case in point, hitters were 2 for 35 against Olson’s changeup before Sunday. The Rangers got three hits, including a pair of doubles, off the pitch. One of those was a two-strike double by Adolis Garcia leading off the second inning that bounced off the bag at third.
Opponents were 4 for 21 against his slider. But that didn’t stop Marcus Semien from ambushing a first-pitch slider for a two-run homer in the second to get the Rangers off and running.
“I just didn’t execute them,” Olson said. “I’m sure that was their plan, to see those (secondary) pitches up and I just wasn’t executing them down in the zone like I normally do and they took advantage of that a few times.”
Semien’s homer was the first allowed by Olson since the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman got him on March 29 in Los Angeles, a span of 38.2 homerless innings. And it ended up being a 35-pitch second inning for Olson, who got Wyatt Langford to line out to left stranding the bases loaded.
“I think they did a good job of capitalizing on their early opportunities,” Hinch said. “They got that ball (Garcia’s) down the line, clipped the base and Semien hits the first-pitch homer. They got a two-out, seeing-eye hit that doesn’t leave the infield (in the third) and they score on a single.
“There were a couple of things they did with Reese to really make him work and they got to him when they had their opportunities.”
Evan Carter blooped a two-out RBI single off an Olson changeup in the third inning, scoring Garcia, who had an infield single and stole second base.
“It’s frustrating when you feel like you missed a barrel and a guy flares it over second base,” Olson said. “Frustrating especially when there is two in the same inning and they score a run. But I just wasn’t very sharp today.”
Olson was especially displeased with the slider Semien blasted.
“It started up and stayed up and just spun there,” he said.
The Rangers whiffed on just eight of their 35 swings against Olson and the 13 balls put in play had an average exit velocity of 90 mph. Another indication of the Rangers’ plan to sit soft – 13 called strikes against his sinker.
It was just the second time this season that Tigers starting pitchers failed to go five innings in back-to-back starts. Jack Flaherty lasted three innings Saturday night.
Falling into early holes is tough sledding, regardless of who is pitching. It is near-fatal against elite pitchers like Jacob deGrom (Saturday) and Nathan Eovaldi.
Neither let the Tigers up off the mat.
“It’s part of the game,” Hinch said. “We don’t see it any different no matter who we are facing. You just know you’ve got your work cut out for you.”
Eovaldi hadn’t allowed more than two runs in seven of his eight starts and he breezed through seven scoreless. He lowered his ERA and WHIP to 1.70 and 0.75, respectively, both lowest in baseball.
“He’s really good, really a tough matchup and we didn’t have the solution,” Hinch said. “He pitches on the margins very well. He pounds the zone. You go into the game knowing he’s not going to walk anybody. He’s going to come at you but he doesn’t come at you with free strikes.”
Eovaldi, mixing splitters, curveballs and cutters off a 95-96 mph four-seam fastball, punched out seven and induced nine groundball outs.
“Slow breaking balls, splitters, he will quick-pitch you, he varies his timing, he hangs there for a minute,” Hinch said. “He’s been pitching for a really long time and he combines the art of pitching with power. He really dominated us.”
The Tigers managed only three base runners, a double by Riley Greene, single by Spencer Torkelson and a walk by Kerry Carpenter.
The Rangers, who hit five home runs Saturday night, blasted three more Sunday. Josh Jung, with his mother and father seated behind home plate and his brother Jace starting at third base for the Tigers, launched a two-run shot off reliever Beau Brieske in the fifth.
Jonah Heim, who had been 0 for 11 in the series, homered off lefty Brant Hurter in the eighth.
“Obviously, not a great day for us overall,” Hinch said.
The Tigers (26-15) open a three-game series against the Red Sox Monday.
@cmccosky
Want to comment on this story? Become a subscriber today. Click here.