Detroit Tigers 17, Texas Rangers 4

So much for the sweep.

ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers were unceremoniously spanked Wednesday night, losing 17-4 to the Detroit Tigers at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The loss snapped a two-game winning streak and dropped Texas to 75-78.

Photo not provided by the Detroit Tigers

The victory was immediately followed by a ticker-tape parade down the center of Detroit (pictured)

The primary culprits were a series of ineffective Rangers pitchers, from starter Dustin Nippert through the bullpen. As a team, Texas sent seven pitchers to the plate, gave up sixteen hits --including just one home run-- and nine walks.

Nippert, who had been impressive in his last two starts, regressed to mid-season form by giving up five runs off six hits in just over four innings of work. Nippert went deep in far too many counts, walking four and striking out six, and saw his ERA rise to 6.47.

Texas' bullpen actually fared far worse, giving up an astonishing (for a non-Rangers fan) 12 runs over four and two-thirds innings. Luis Mendoza and Bill White gave up the bulk of that, eleven runs in just one inning of work. White saw his already-stratospheric ERA rise from the low 20's to 30.38.

Three of Texas' four runs were driven in by leadoff hitter Brandon Boggs, who had an RBI groundout in the bottom of the third to make it 2-1, and later added a much-needed two-run double in the seventh to cut the Tigers' lead to 16-3.

Posted by Todd M.