Arlington, Texas − It defies logical explanation.
On the eve of injured starting pitcher Matt Manning’s return to the rotation, lefty Matthew Boyd had to leave his start Monday after just 15 pitches. Boyd, who missed most of last season rehabbing from flexor tendon surgery in his left arm, experienced discomfort in his left elbow.
An inning later, reliever Will Vest walked off the field with trainer Ryne Eubanks. He tweaked his right knee on the 17th pitch of his outing.
“Not again,” manager AJ Hinch said when asked how he reacted to that double-barrel gut punch. “It’s natural to feel frustrated. A lot of things can start to spiral. But in-game, I go right into manager mode and try to figure out what we need to do next.
“But sitting there in the dugout, I’m asking (pitching coach Chris) Fetter, like, not again.”
Unfathomable.
And yet, the Tigers still managed to win a baseball game.
BOX SCORE: Tigers 7, Rangers 2
Andy Ibanez, cast away by the Rangers last year, slugged a three-run home run and Texas native Jake Rogers added a two-run blast, sending the Tigers to a 7-2 win over American League West-leading Texas, at Globe Life Field.
“It was really sad to see our guys go down that way,” Ibanez said through bilingual interpreter Carlos Guillen. “But we had their backs. We had each other’s backs.”
Rangers’ lefty starter Andrew Heaney had struck out Ibanez on three pitches in the first inning. But with two on, Ibanez scorched an 0-1 changeup, hitting the ball 427 feet over the Tigers’ bullpen in left-center.
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“It felt really good, to be honest,” Ibanez said with a smile. “I have a lot of friends and good teammates over there (on the Rangers’ side) but it felt good to hit that home run.”
Rogers ended Heaney’s night with a two-out blast in the sixth. His team-leading 10th homer sailed 404 feet just inside the foul pole in left.
“That was tough,” second baseman Zack Short said. “They hit the leadoff homer and we were already behind the 8-ball. And then the two injuries happen in back-to-back innings. But we answered right away. On the mound, though, we’re just looking around like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’
“It sucks. It sucks for those guys. Vest was dealing and Boyd was being Boyd and competing his tail off. It was a gut punch. For us to go down and then score seven runs and not flinch was awesome.”
The Tigers beat the Twins a couple of times with planned bullpen games. This was one was impromptu and borne out of desperation.
“You still know your guys and you know their hitters,” catcher Rogers said. “We know how they do against righties and lefties. It was a shock, for sure, but we got the plan pretty quickly. You just roll with the punches.”
The bullpen, after covering five innings on Sunday, did yeoman’s work again. All told, Tigers pitchers struck out a season-high 16 against one of the best offensive teams in baseball.
“We pitched and we pitched aggressively,” Hinch said. “We didn’t back down when they hit the ball out of the ballpark. We continued to find chase counts and get them (to swing) outside the strike zone.”
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Between Boyd (two), Vest (three) and former Ranger and Forney, Texas native Mason Englert (four), they posted nine strikeouts through the first four innings.
The damage came in the form of two solo home runs − Marcus Semien hit Boyd’s second pitch into the seats in left and Adolis Garcia blasted a center-cut fastball from Englert into the Rangers’ bullpen in right-center.
Lefty Tyler Alexander got it to the back end of the bullpen, putting up zeros in the fifth, sixth and seventh. He punched out four.
“He has an uncanny ability to move his cutter around,” Hinch said. “You look up on the board and he’s got enough strikeouts and he doesn’t walk guys. He just does a lot of positive things. You trust him because the compete button is really good and he doesn’t back down. When he gives up a line drive or a homer or an extra base hit, his next pitch and next at-bat is generally pretty good.
“He’s very versatile and very valuable.”
With Alex Lange unavailable (he’d thrown 2.1 innings the last two games), it was up to Jason Foley and Tyler Holton to lock it down. Foley struck out two in a clean eighth. Holton issued a pair of walks and loaded the bases in the ninth, but got Corey Seager to fly out to end the game.
“We gave them about as many different looks as we could,” Hinch said. “We were about a pitcher or two away from being out of pitching. Everybody we had available pitched. Hats off to the bullpen again. In a month when they’ve been used a ton, tonight they were awesome.”
Boyd’s 15th pitch was a 91-mph fastball that went to the backstop and almost immediately manager AJ Hinch and Eubanks were on their way to the mound.
“He hit it with a grimace so I went out there,” Rogers said. “I looked at him and he gave me a shrug. I just gave him a hug and said I hope he’s going to be OK.”
This was Boyd’s 15th start and he’d had no physical issues to this point.
After Semien’s homer, he struck out Corey Seager and Josh Jung, with his fastball hitting 93 mph. He threw a changeup to Garcia before uncorking the fastball to the backstop.
“He looked uncomfortable and took a long walk around the mound,” Hinch said. “He told us what was bothering him and we took him out. We chose not to have him throw a test pitch.”
Vest had struck out three of the four hitters he faced but landed awkwardly on his 17th pitch. His right knee seemed to buckle. He did throw a test pitch, but couldn’t continue.
“I thought it was his ankle,” Hinch said. “He said it was his around his hammy or calf. Then it was more like around the knee area. We will get them checked out and see where it takes them. It was a tough night to navigate.”
With Manning coming off the 60-day injured list Tuesday, the Tigers were already going to have to make moves on their active and 40-man rosters. Now, most likely, Boyd will go on the injured list to accommodate Manning. But with the extended bullpen usage Sunday and Monday, it seems likely that a fresh-armed reliever may be summoned from Triple-A Toledo.
“I don’t know,” Hinch said after the game. “I have some time yet. I’ll be up for a while tonight.”
chris.mccosky@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @cmccosky