DETROIT — Traumatic Tuesday.
The day started with the news that ace lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (finger) and right fielder Matt Vierling (back) were going on the injured list. Rodriguez’s absence could be lengthy, the minimum recovery time for a rupture A4 pulley is typically six weeks.
But there was more.
Riley Greene, who was honored before the game by the Detroit media as the 2022 Tiger of the Year and Rookie of the Year, left in the third inning with an apparent leg injury. The Tigers announced during the game that he had discomfort in his lower left leg.
Greene appeared to slip or stumble chasing a fly ball to right-center hit by Corey Seager in the top of the third. He finished the top half of the inning, Andy Ibanez pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the third.
The Texas Rangers didn’t much care about the Tigers’ issues. They just continue to steamroll opponents. They KO’d Tigers starter Alex Faedo in the fifth inning on their way to a 10-6 win. They are on a 21-9 run.
Josh Jung, older brother of Tigers’ prospect Jace Jung, led the charge with a single, double and home run (his 12th), scoring three runs and knocking in two. Catcher Jonah Heim knocked in three runs with a single and double. Adolis Garcia had four singles and scored three runs.
Faedo ended up with six runs and seven hits on his ledger. Jung’s homer, a 429-foot no-doubter to left, was struck off lefty reliever Tyler Holton.
Say this about the Tigers, though. They didn’t just roll over.
Jake Rogers, making his first start after sitting the previous three, homered in his first at-bat in the third. Ibanez, who was in a 1-for-41 skid, homered in the fifth.
The elder Tigers threw some the big punches, too.
Miguel Cabrera, 40, had a three-hit night and moved into 15th place on the MLB all-time total bases list.
He lofted a sacrifice fly to score a run in the second. He singled and scored from second on a two-out single by Zack Short in the fourth. Short’s hit tipped off shortstop Seager’s glove into short left field. Hustling Cabrera beat the throw from Travis Jankowski with a clever slide to the front of the plate.
Then in the fifth, Cabrera doubled in 32-year-old Jonathan Schoop from first base in the fifth.
All that damage was against Rangers lefty starter Martin Perez, who left with a 7-6 lead with two outs in the fifth.
The fun stopped abruptly, though, when right-hander Grant Anderson was summoned from the Rangers’ bullpen. Making his major league debut, Anderson struck out the first four batters he faced — Tyler Nevin, Rogers, Akil Baddoo and Javier Báez.
Anderson ended up striking out seven of the nine batters he faced. He was one strikeout shy of the big league record for a reliever in a debut. Pinch-hitter Nick Maton lined out to center and Cabrera ended his night with a single.
That hit by Cabrera brought his career total base total to 5,272, passing Ken Griffey Jr., for 15th all time.
Right-hander Braden Bristo, called up from Triple-A Toledo earlier in the day, pitched a clean eighth inning but was charged with an unearned run in the ninth (throwing error by Báez) in his Tigers’ debut. The Tigers claimed him off waivers from Tampa Bay earlier this season. He’d had his struggles in Triple-A this season (allowing 24 runs in 21 innings at Toledo and Durham.