Published: September 11, 2007 04:58 pm            

Rangers take out Tigers, 13-6

DETROIT (AP) — Every time it appears the Detroit Tigers are about to mount a surge, they fall flat.

A day after the Tigers rallied with four runs in the ninth for a thrilling win over Toronto, they fell behind by 11 runs and lost 13-6 Monday to the Rangers in the opener of a day-night doubleheader.

Marlon Byrd homered twice, and Hank Blalock, David Murphy, Freddy Guzman, Jarrod Saltamacchia, Ramon Vazquez also connected for Texas, which had not hit seven homers in a game since getting eight on June 30, 2005, against the Angels.

Detroit began the day 3 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the AL wild-card race and six back of AL Central-leading Cleveland. The Tigers are 6-4 in September, not the playoff push needed for Detroit to retain its AL title.

Gary Sheffield, hitless in his last 25 at-bats, didn’t play for the Tigers.

Vicente Padilla (6-9) allowed three hits and three walks in six shutout innings, improving his scoreless streak to 12 innings. He is 3-0 in his career against Detroit with a 2.07 ERA.

Chad Durbin (8-7) gave up five runs — four earned — and six hits in 2 2-3 innings.

Detroit trailed 11-0 before scoring five runs off Mike Wood in the eighth, when Mike Hessman hit a three-run homer.

Texas went ahead in the first when center fielder Curtis Granderson appeared to lose Jason Botts’ RBI single in a cloudy sky. In the second, left fielder Marcus Thames let Murphy’s fly glance off his glove, bounce off the top of the wall and land in the bullpen to make it 2-0.

Durbin hit Ian Kinsler opening the third, and Byrd hit a two-run homer. Blalock’s two-out double chased Durbin, Murphy reached on a throwing error by third baseman Brandon Inge and Tim Byrdak threw a run-scoring wild pitch that put Texas ahead 5-0.

A sign of the Tigers’ day: Timo Perez’s two-out single hit teammate Omar Infante between first and second in the bottom half, ending the inning.

Texas made it 10-0 in the fifth against Jose Capellan when Byrd hit a solo homer, Murphy had an RBI triple, Saltamacchia followed with a two-run homer and Vazquez homered on the next pitch. Byrd, who has a career-best nine home runs, drove in three runs in the first multihomer game of his career

Blalock hit a 440-foot drive to straightaway center in the seventh against Yorman Bazardo. Guzman got his first major league homer in the ninth when he connected off Clay Rapada.

Notes: The teams combined to use 35 players. ... Texas has scored 50 runs in its last three doubleheader games, including their record-setting 30 in the first game against Baltimore on Aug. 22. ... The Rangers activated RHP Brandon McCarthy (shoulder) from the DL between games and he was scheduled to start at night.

        

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