The Texas Rangers will attempt to pick up their second three-game series sweep in as many weeks when they face the host Detroit Tigers on Wednesday afternoon.
Texas’ last sweep came against the Rockies, as it outscored Colorado 31-10 from May 19-21.
The Rangers have won nine of their last 11 games, most recently on Tuesday night when they outslugged the Tigers 10-6. Texas rapped five extra-base hits, including two from Josh Jung. It also got a four-RBI night from Jonah Heim and a four-hit game from Adolis Garcia.
Texas also unveiled another power arm in Grant Anderson, who pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in his major league debut to collect the victory.
“In all my years, I can’t think of a better debut than what he did,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said of Anderson. “I think seven strikeouts is just so impressive. He had so much poise out there. He really gave us what we needed. I was so impressed with how he handled himself.”
Freshly off the paternity list, Dane Dunning (4-0, 1.67 ERA) will make the start for Texas on Wednesday. In his last outing on May 22, Dunning gave up one run and six hits in 5 2/3 innings at Pittsburgh. He also walked three, but consistently escaped trouble.
“They were really good at not chasing stuff off the plate,” Dunning said. “I just made some elevated sliders they were able to put some good swings on and some elevated mistakes. I thought they had a good approach at the plate. We kind of just took how their approach was and tried to do the opposite later on.”
Dunning entered the rotation after Jacob deGrom was placed on the injured list in late April.
The right-hander has gone at least five innings in each of his four starts and hasn’t allowed more than two runs.
In four career starts vs. the Tigers, Dunning is 0-2 with a 5.79 ERA.
Detroit will counter with struggling left-hander Joey Wentz (1-5, 7.80). Wentz has allowed 21 runs in 20 1/3 innings in five May starts.
“I view it as all pretty bad,” Wentz said. “I’ve had some good starts this year and I’ve had more bad ones. I need to go out and do better.”
In his latest outing, Wentz gave up five runs and six hits in four innings against the Chicago White Sox on Friday.
“When you openly admit that you’re struggling, that’s good in one sense — that you are admitting reality,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “But on the back end, that’s a lot of pressure that you’re putting on yourself.”
It’s not a given that Wentz will start the game. Hinch could go with a reliever before bringing in Wentz.
“We may have to do some creative things,” Hinch said. “We’ve talked about, ‘Do we open for him and give him a change of scenery?’ Maybe throw less fastballs — that’d probably be a good start. But the adjustments need to happen here (and not in Triple-A). We have a lot of trust and faith in him.”
He’ll be facing Texas for the first time.
Detroit placed ace Eduardo Rodriguez and utility player Matt Vierling on the injured list Tuesday, and their top hitter, Riley Greene, left Tuesday’s game with lower leg discomfort. The injury occurred in the first inning. Greene was removed in the third. He’ll undergo scans on the leg to determine the extent of the injury.
“The way he was moving around, he needed to come out,” Hinch said.
