DETROIT -- The Rangers turned Comerica Park into their launching pad Saturday evening, crushing four homers in the first three innings against Jack Flaherty in a 10-3 win over the Tigers. Texas starter Jacob deGrom struck out 10 in five-plus innings and allowed two runs on five hits before a sellout crowd of 40,844.
The combo of power hitting and power pitching netted Rangers manager Bruce Bochy win No. 2,190, putting him four away from matching the total of Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson, who led Bochy’s beloved Reds and the Tigers to World Series triumphs.
Josh Smith led off the game with his fourth homer. Two batters later, Corey Seager belted the first of two solo shots that gave him six on the year. Evan Carter and Joc Pederson both hit their first homers of the season to pad the lead, with the latter’s blast a two-run shot.
Seager, the MVP of the 2023 World Series Bochy won with Texas, was asked to touch on his manager’s accomplishments.
“He’s just really impressive,” Seager said. “To be able to be in baseball that long, and be in a group with names like that, it’s something really special. And I know he doesn’t take it for granted.”
Bochy has joined the pack of iconic managers.
Anderson finished his managerial career (1970-95) in third place on the MLB wins list with 2,194, trailing Connie Mack (3,731) and John McGraw (2,763). He’s slipped to sixth over the past 30 seasons, with Tony La Russa (2,884), Bobby Cox (2,504) and Joe Torre (2,326) passing him.
“I was a big Sparky Anderson fan,” said Bochy, who played in nine MLB seasons. “I grew up a Cincinnati Reds fan. So when you get called up to the big leagues [in 1978 by the Astros], you know you’re in the Major Leagues.
“But when it hit me the second time was when I played against the Reds. [Johnny] Bench was catching and Sparky was managing on the other side. And then [while playing for the Padres,] he was managing against us in the World Series, and I respected him so much.”
Anderson and the Tigers beat San Diego in a five-game 1984 Fall Classic, during which Bochy singled in his only at-bat.
“Then I got to know him pretty good,” said Bochy, 70, whose first year as a Major League manager with the Padres in 1995 was Anderson’s last season as a manager with Detroit.
Bochy, a four-time World Series winner, doesn’t care for taking bows. However, he said of reaching and passing Anderson, “Of course it will be special with the mammoth career he had.
“Getting to know Sparky … what he would do was make an effort to come over and talk to me. I’ll never forget playing in the golf tournament that was a fundraiser. If he ever was around, he’d always come by, and I’m very appreciative of that. As a manager, when you’ve got Sparky coming over, that means a lot.
“So I cherish those times that I did have a chance to talk to him.”
Seager, who added an RBI double in between homers and was coming back from missing two games with hamstring soreness, and deGrom were the stars in this game. Seager’s second homer was the fifth in the game for the Rangers -- a season high.
“That’s more like who we are,” said Bochy, whose 19-21 team has been waiting for the bats to match the quality pitching. “They’re going to come around, and they’re showing signs of it.
“It’s always good to have Corey back. He changes our lineup. … When he’s in our lineup, he makes everybody better and is one of the best hitters in the game.”
deGrom (3-1), who has three of Texas’ past four wins, struck out six consecutive Tigers after allowing a leadoff homer to Kerry Carpenter in the first. His fourth career game with 10-plus strikeouts through four innings tied him with Nolan Ryan for the second most in MLB since the expansion era began in 1961. Randy Johnson holds the record with five.
In the first and second innings, deGrom got Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Zach McKinstry and Trey Sweeney to each go down swinging on hard-breaking sliders well outside the strike zone.
“He’s got a great slider to go with that big fastball,” said Bochy.
deGrom said of his out-pitch: “It starts when you locate the fastball which, in the first few starts this year, I wasn’t able to. But now it’s important to locate that fastball down and pitch off that.
“I was thinking probably to throw more changeups with a bunch of lefties in there, but seeing the chase rate on the slider, I made the adjustment there.”