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Tigers aim to stop slide vs. Rangers

May 23, 2014 - 2:48 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Detroit Tigers try to put the brakes on a four-game losing streak on Friday when they continue a four-game series against the Prince Fielder-less Texas Rangers at Comerica Park.

Detroit's recent woes continued on Thursday, as Shin-Soo Choo clubbed a two- run homer and Yu Darvish continued his dominance of the Tigers to lead Texas to a 9-2 win.

Adrian Beltre and Michael Choice each drove in two runs in support of Darvish (4-2), who held the Tigers to two runs on six hits and three walks with six strikeouts over seven strong frames. In five career starts against Detroit, Darvish is a perfect a 5-0.

"For seven innings he did a good job and held them to two runs," Rangers manager Ron Washington said of Darvish stifling Detroit's potent offense. "That's a pretty good feat right there."

Chris Gimenez supplied four of Texas' 14 hits and also drove in a run, while Alex Rios registered an RBI and scored twice for the Rangers, who have won three of their last four games.

The victory was somewhat spoiled, though, by the news that Fielder would be undergoing season-ending neck surgery to repair a herniated disk.

"It's a situation where there wasn't anything he could do about it," Washington said. "If he could, he would be here."

Detroit starter Robbie Ray (1-1) surrendered seven runs on nine hits and four walks over 3 1/3 innings to absorb the loss.

"I didn't really have command of my fastball and when you don't have that, you're other pitches aren't going to work," Ray admitted. "It was just a rough day all around."

Miguel Cabrera collected two hits, an RBI and a run scored for the Tigers, whose slide comes on the heels of a six-game win streak.

The Tigers will now turn to righty Anibal Sanchez, who is coming off his first win of the season in his first start back from the disabled list. Sanchez beat the Boston Red Sox on Sunday, as he held them to two runs (1 earned) and five hits over five innings to improve to 1-2, while lowering his ERA to 2.89.

"He was actually pretty crisp. Fastball, changeup, slider all looked pretty good," Tigers manager Brad Ausmus said. "Command around the zone was pretty good. We wanted to stop him around 85ish pitches. He got us through five. A pretty good first start back off the DL."

Sanchez, though, has lost all three of his starts to the Rangers and has looked bad in doing so, pitching to a 9.49 ERA.

Texas, meanwhile, will counter with righty Scott Baker, who will be trying to fill Robbie Ross' rotation spot. Baker has pitched once for the Rangers this season and gave up a pair of runs to the Colorado Rockies in a 5 1/3-inning relief effort.

"He's got experience," Washington said. "He's been out there trying to get 27 outs before. We'll give him a shot. Where we are is giving guys opportunities so he'll get an opportunity."

Baker is no stranger to the Tigers having faced them 23 times. He is 7-5 in those outings with a 4.71 ERA.

Texas won four of its seven meetings with the Tigers last season.