DETROIT — Maybe AJ Hinch just wanted to go hang out with kids on Father's Day.
Or maybe — and perhaps more likely — he was arguing balls and strikes with the umpire behind home plate, who ran Hinch out of the game in the third inning of the Tigers' 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
It's Detroit's second consecutive win on the heels of losing six straight and the first time all season the team has scored five or more runs in back-to-back games
The majority of the Tigers' offensive output came early and all at once, as Robbie Grossman sent a three-run shot over the right-field wall in the first inning to give his team a lead. It was Grossman's second homer of the season and his second in as many days.
Grossman's blast came just one half inning after Corey Seager put the Rangers up with his own homer, a solo shot into the Texas bullpen.
Drew Hutchison got the start for Detroit, his second of the season, and tossed 4 2/3 innings, allowing four hits and three earned runs. Alex Lang, Wily Peralta, Michael Fulmer, Andrew Chafin and Gregory Soto came on in relief and kept the Rangers off the board for the rest of the outing.
With things knotted and the bases loaded in the fifth, Spencer Torkelson stepped to the plate with a chance to put the Tigers up, and that's exactly what he did with a two-run single that drove in Harold Castro from third and Javier Báez from second.
Torkelson is now 4-for-9 in his last two games with two RBIs.
The Tigers added some insurance in the ninth inning with a pair of RBIs coming from Tucker Barnhart and Grossman.
It's the second win of the Riley Greene era in as many games, and the rookie drew two more walks in five plate appearances Sunday. He's walked four times in his first two major league games.
The Tigers will next head to Boston to begin a three-game set with the Red Sox beginning Monday.
