Detroit Tigers continue to battle through the pain

Reporting from Arlington, Texas — The Detroit Tigers may be battered, they may be bruised and they may be one loss away from next season.

But they’re not done yet. And that, designated hitter Victor Martinez thinks, makes them dangerous entering Saturday’s sixth game of the American League Championship Series, which they trail, three games to two.

“We don’t get this opportunity often,” said Martinez, one of four Tigers starters nursing an injury. “We’re doing anything we can to stay in the lineup. The most important thing is to just help the team win.”

But that’s difficult to do when you’re in pain. Which may explain why Martinez, who has a strained muscle in his side, is hitting .167 in the ALCS and catcher Alex Avila, playing on a pair of sore knees, has just two hits in 21 at-bats. Outfielder Delmon Young, who also has a strained side muscle, is hitting .182 — but both his hits were home runs.

And all three of those players are better off than outfielder Magglio Ordonez, who broke his ankle in the first game of the series.

“To see guys like that play hurt, it means a lot,” said first baseman Miguel Cabrera. “It makes you want to win more. They would do anything to get ready for the game and play.”

Avila, however, waved away the praise.

“I don’t think it’s anything special,” he said. “It’s what we do. It’s just a matter of making sure you’re getting done whatever you need to get done as far as treatment-wise in the trainer’s room to be out there on the field. You just deal with it.”

The Tigers took Friday off to heal knowing that, were it not for key contributions from their walking wounded, they would probably be on winter vacation by now. It was Young’s two homers and a run-scoring triple from Martinez that helped Detroit stave off elimination Thursday, sending the series back to Texas where the Rangers will send 16-game winner Derek Holland to the mound Saturday against Detroit’s Max Scherzer, a 15-game winner.

Now all the Tigers have to do is win consecutive games at the Ballpark in Arlington where the Rangers had an AL-best 52 victories this season.

If they do that they’ll make history since only two other franchises have overcome a 3-1 ALCS deficit to advance to the World Series. Martinez was there the last time it happened, in 2007, when his Cleveland Indians lost a two-game lead and the pennant to Boston.

“We were just one game away. And then things changed,” Martinez said. “So anything is possible.”

Asked what that experience taught him, Martinez offered some cautious words for the Rangers.

“Never take anything for granted,” he warned. “Never, never. When you have the chance to finish off somebody, do it.”

That, of course, is what the Rangers did in identical circumstances last season when they bounced back from a Game 5 ALCS loss in New York to beat the Yankees in Game 6 at home, earning their first-ever World Series berth.

And that’s the history lesson Texas Manager Ron Washington is focused on.

“We know what’s at stake,” Washington said before his team’s brisk late-afternoon workout. “Having been through it we’re more confident and yes we’re very relaxed. But we also understand that the game has to be played.

“We’ll just wait and see what happens.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com