Rangers beat up Tigers pitching again, roll to easy victory

Chris McCosky, The Detroit News on May 11, 2025

Published in Baseball

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DETROIT – Reese Olson has had and will have better days. But on Sunday in the rubber match of a three-game series before a crowd of 36,138 at Comerica Park, the Texas Rangers had his number.

They scored three times and knocked him out of the game after four innings, taking the series with a 6-1 win over the Detroit Tigers. It marked the first home series loss of the season, who had won the first five.

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.

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 inning to get the Rangers off and running.

It was the first home run allowed by Olson since the Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman got him on March 29 in Los Angeles, a span of 38 2/3 homerless innings.

It ended up being a 35-pitch second inning for Olson, who got Wyatt Langford to line out to left stranding the bases loaded.

Evan Carter blooped a two-out RBI single off an Olson changeup in the third inning, scoring Adolis Garcia who had singled and stole second base.

The Rangers whiffed on just eight of their 35 swings against Olson and the 13 balls put in play had a robust 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 when facing elite pitchers like Jacob deGrom (Saturday) and Nathan Eovaldi.

Neither let the Tigers up off the mat.

Eovaldi hadn’t allowed more than two runs in seven of his eight starts and he breezed through seven scoreless innings. He lowered his ERA and WHIP to 1.70 and 0.75, respectively, both lowest in baseball.

The Tigers managed only three base runners, a double by Riley Greene, single by Spencer Torkelson and a walk by Kerry Carpenter.

Eovaldi, mixing splitters, curveballs and cutters off a 95-96 mph four-seam fastball, punched out seven and induced nine ground-ball outs.

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.

Things got interesting briefly when the Tigers loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth against reliever Jacob Latz. The Rangers summoned lefty reliever Robert Garcia. Torkelson's sacrifice fly at least prevented the shutout.

The Tigers (26-15) open a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox Monday at Comerica Park.

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