Rangers drop third in a row in series opener against Tigers

After dropping two of three to the Houston Astros over the weekend, the Rangers fell again tonight as they started their last homestand of the year with three against the Detroit Tigers. Tyler Collins launched a three run homerun for the Tigers to help propel them to a 7-4 win. Justin Verlander got the win to improve to 5-8 while Colby Lewis took the loss to drop to 17-9 and former Ranger Neftali Feliz picked up the save, his tenth of the year.

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In the top of the third, Miguel Cabrera walked with the bases loaded to break a scoreless tie. In the bottom of the fourth Texas evened it up on a homerun by Prince Fielder. In the fifth the Tigers broke the game open, starting with Collins’ three run jack which hooked the corner in right field to put Detroit up 4-1. Later that inning James McCann singled to centerfield to score Nick Castellanos and Victor Martinez to make it 6-1. In the sixth Detroit got their sixth unanswered run as J.D. Martinez hit into a fielder’s choice with the bases loaded to score Anthony Gose and make it 7-1.

In the seventh Fielder got Texas on the board again with an RBI groundout to score Chris Giminez. In the ninth Fielder, who provided all the offense for Texas in the game, hit a double to center to score Robinson Chirinos and Drew Stubbs to make it 7-4. From there Detroit closed the game out and took game one of the series.

Both the Astros and Angels have late games Monday night. A win by the Astros against the Mariners would pull them within 1.5 games of the Rangers for first place in the crowded AL west. The Angels have been right on the heels of the Astros, just a half game back as they compete with the A’s as they try to stay in the playoff race.