Tigers' rally falls short against Rangers

[June 28, 2012]  ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) -- Detroit Tigers starter Doug Fister lost for the fourth time in six road starts this season and he couldn't complain about a lack of run support.

The Tigers had 17 hits Wednesday night in a 13-9 loss to the Texas Rangers. One of their biggest problems was David Murphy, who went 4-for-5 with two home runs and matched his career high with five RBIs to make a winner out of Roy Oswalt.

Fister (1-5) gave up nine runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings.

"He just wasn't very sharp," Detroit manager Jim Leyland said of Fister. "We pitched bad and didn't play very well at all defensively.

"Pretty much sums it up."

Ian Kinsler added a two-run homer and Adrian Beltre had three hits and an RBI in support of Oswalt, who earned his second victory in as many starts with the Rangers by pitching in and out of trouble.

Oswalt (2-0) went six innings, giving up five runs and a career-high 13 hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

"It was just one of those nights where everything comes together," Murphy said. "It was just impressive the way we showed an offensive effort from top to bottom. It was very complete."

Closer Joe Nathan pitched a scoreless ninth in a nonsave situation for the Rangers, who needed just about every run for their sixth consecutive series victory, matching the club's longest such streak this season.

Every Ranger had a hit or scored except Josh Hamilton, who went 0-for-4 and struck out four times. He continued a prolonged slump and is 6-for-36 (.167) in his past 10 games.

Murphy led the 16-hit parade with run-scoring hits in each of the Rangers' big scoring innings.

"It was just one of those nights where everything comes together," he said. "It was just impressive the way we showed an offensive effort from top to bottom. It was very complete."

Jhonny Peralta was 3-for-4 with a two-run double in the fifth inning for the Tigers, who twice fought back from big deficits, including scoring four runs in the eighth to make a game of it.

Murphy's three-run homer in the second capped a four-run inning, a solo shot in the fourth started another four-run surge, and he had a run-scoring single in the three-run fifth that extended their lead to 11-5.

Murphy matched a career high he set June 11, 2008, at Kansas City. It was the fourth multihomer game of his career.

In two starts this season, Oswalt is 2-0 with a 4.43 ERA in 12 2-3 innings. He gave up nine hits but only one walk and one run in 6 2-3 innings in his debut June 16.

"My command's great, I'm throwing the ball where I want to," Oswalt said. "A few balls leaked on me a little bit during the game, but overall, for all four pitches, I felt pretty good coming out of my hand, like I can throw a strike when I want to.

"For my second start, I feel pretty close to where I want to be."

The Rangers scored four runs on four hits and an error in the second.

Beltre, who led off the inning with a single, scored the first run when Detroit third baseman Miguel Cabrera threw wide to first on Nelson Cruz's slow roller.

Murphy followed with a home run to right on an 0-2 pitch.

Hamilton struck out for the third time in the fourth inning.

"I'm not concerned about Josh," manager Ron Washington said. "Give Josh 600 at-bats, and he's going to do some damage. That's all that I look at."

His second homer of the game, which landed in the Rangers bullpen in right-center, put the Rangers up 5-2.

Kinsler followed with his homer that gave Oswalt a five-run lead.

The Tigers chipped away at five- and six-run deficits in the fifth and eighth. Quintin Berry's triple with no outs in the fifth scored Austin Jackson, who led off with a single.

Oswalt got Cabrera to pop out softly to first and Berry was caught in a rundown on a fielder's choice on Prince Fielder's grounder to Beltre.

But Delmon Young singled and Alex Avila, who had two hits, followed with a walk to load the bases for Peralta's two-out double that trimmed the lead to 7-5.

Down 11-5 in the eighth, the Tigers used run-scoring hits from Jackson, Young and Avila off relievers Martin Perez and Mike Adams and an error by Kinsler to score four runs.

"We hustled hard and had good at-bats," Leyland said. "You got to play better than that, pitch better than that to have a chance here.

"This was an ugly game. You just turn the page and go on to the next stop."

Cabrera had a run-scoring single in the third and Brennan Boesch had an RBI.

NOTES: Robbie Ross, who pitched a scoreless seventh, extended his scoreless streak to 16 2-3 innings over his last 11 appearances. . Rangers starter Derek Holland, on the 15-day DL, retroactive to June 6, threw 39 pitches in a rehabilitation start for Triple-A Round Rock, giving up one run and three hits, including a home run, one walk and two strikeouts over three innings. . Beltre, the leading All-Star game vote-getter among AL third basemen, is hitting .567 with three doubles, two home runs and six RBIs during his current hitting streak, which he extended to eight games with a 3-for-5 night. . The Tigers have scored a run in 143 consecutive games, dating to July 17, 2011.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.