Arlington, Texas — Don’t look now, but the Tigers are on a roll.
Home runs by Zach McKinstry and Riley Greene backed another strong, albeit abbreviated start by Jack Flaherty and the Tigers won for the second straight night at Globe Life Field, beating the Texas Rangers 3-1 Tuesday.
"We have a game tomorrow so we're not going to do too much dancing tonight," manager AJ Hinch said. "But I do like that our guys came in and played in a really tough environment, the crowd was electric, against the defending world champs and we took it right to them.
"Winning the series is good. We did have a winning road trip. But we want to keep it going day by day."
It was the Tigers’ third straight win and their eighth in the last 11. They have crept back over .500, 31-30.
But it came with some concern about Flaherty.
He was outstanding, allowing two hits in five scoreless innings. And he was at an efficient 60 pitches. But he did not come back out for the sixth.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 3, Rangers 1
"Back tightness," Hinch said. "He battled it for a couple of innings and then it got worse at the end of his outing. We got him out of there and decided to give him some early treatment."
After the game, Flaherty was still in obvious discomfort. Wrapped in ice packs, he slowly settled himself in a chair to address the media.
"I'll be fine," he said. "I felt it a little bit pre-game but it was one of those things where you just see how long you can go. Just keep going, keep making pitches, keep executing until it gets to a certain point where it starts hindering."
That point was after he got a 5-4-3 double-play ball to end the fifth inning.
"I'm sure I will be good for the next start," he said. "The way it works out, I get two extra days. I don't pitch again for a week because of two off days (Thursday and next Monday). We'll see how I wake up tomorrow, but I feel pretty good about it."
In light of the stiffness and pain he pitched through, his performance against a tough Rangers lineup was doubly impressive. He dispatched nine straight before yielding an infield hit to Marcus Semien leading off the fourth.
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His usage was different, though, pitching more off his knuckle-curve and slider than his fastball. He still threw 29 four-seamers, but the average velocity was down nearly 1 mph (92.9).
His curveball, though, was befuddling the Rangers’ hitters. His typical usage with that pitch is 18.5%. He threw it 25% of the time Tuesday. He got four misses on nine swings and three called strikes with it.
"I have pitched through a lot of things in my career, and for me to come out of a game, I'm in a lot of pain," he said. "I threw through a lot when I was younger and I threw through a lot these last handful of years. But you have to understand where the game is at and how you are feeling. We were at a point where it just became detrimental."
Right-hander Alex Faedo took over in the sixth. He gave up a walk, single and wild pitch, but escaped getting Josh Smith to fly out to center. His command issues continued in the seventh. He walked two and threw another wild pitch.
With two on and two out, Hinch brought in right-hander Shelby Miller, just activated off the injured list before the game. What a difference a healthy Miller makes.
He punched-out Jonah Heim with a riding, 94-mph fastball and then pitched a clean and snappy eighth, striking out both Leody Taveras and Semien.
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"I felt really good," said Miller, from Brownwood, Texas, who played in front of 30 friends and family members. "I felt the stuff was right where we expected. It just goes to show with the swing-and-miss I was getting that the fastball life was a lot better. I love being in those big moments and big situations.
"That was a big win for us."
The Rangers scored their run in the ninth. Lefty Tyler Holton got two outs, but with a runner at second, Ezequiel Duran hit a high pop up behind second base that fell between center fielder Greene and shortstop McKinstry.
"I just didn't take control over it," Greene said. "I just didn't call it and the ball dropped. That can't happen. It can't happen and it won't happen again. That's my ball and it has to be caught."
Right-hander Jason Foley came on and got rookie Wyatt Langford to secure the win. It was his 12th save.
"I haven't talked to Riley," Hinch said. "All I was saying after the game was, you can't be mad after a win. You have to enjoy the wins. Obviously, we will look at that play. It was a classic tweener and you can't hear a thing out there. You can't even hear the PitchCom.
"Everyone knows it's a play that has to be made, especially at that juncture. We had to use an extra pitcher and take on more stress. But wins in the big leagues are good."
Hinch talked before the game about the difficulty for a player like McKinstry to maintain credible scoreboard numbers when his at-bats were so infrequent and spread out. To that point, he came in hitting .185.
But he turned on a cutter from Rangers’ starter Dane Dunning with one on in the second inning and wrapped it around the foul pole in right field. It was his first homer of the season.
He tripled in the fourth but was stranded.
Greene got a slider from Dunning in his sweet spot in the fifth inning and put a beautiful swing on it. The pitch was down and in and it left his bat with an exit velocity of 103 mph. He sent it several rows beyond the right-field wall.
Greene leads the Tigers with 11 home runs.
"Our goal is to go on the road and win series," Greene said. "And that's what we did."
Chris.McCosky@detroitnews.com
@cmccosky
