Tigers show their resiliency in 5-2 victory over Rangers

Reporting From Detroit — This is a resilient bunch, Jim Leyland said after injuries robbed his team of outfielders Delmon Young and Magglio Ordonez, and the Detroit manager wasn’t just talking about his banged-up Tigers, who nearly lost designated hitter Victor Martinez on Tuesday night.

Texas center fielder Josh Hamilton’s bat flew into the seats behind the first base dugout in Comerica Park in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series, hitting a fan in a Tigers jersey in the back of the head in the sixth inning.

So what did the guy do? He iced his head with a cold, plastic beer bottle and finished out the game.

That’s the kind of spirit and resolve they have in the Motor City, one that was embodied Tuesday by the Tigers, who delivered a jaw-cracking counterpunch to the Rangers in a 5-2 victory that pulled them to within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.

Doug Fister, who learned a thing or two about toughness from his father, Larry, who spent 13 years as a policeman and 20 years as a fireman in Merced, Calif., threw 71/3 superb innings, giving up two runs and seven hits and leaving to a rousing standing ovation.

Martinez, Jhonny Peralta and Miguel Cabrera smacked solo home runs, the latter a towering 398-foot bomb to left to lead off the seventh, and leadoff batter Austin Jackson, who entered with a .120 (three for 25) postseason average and 14 strikeouts, provided a spark with three singles, a run and a run batted in.

Martinez remained in the game despite straining a rib-cage muscle on his fourth-inning homer and needing about a minute and a half to hobble around the bases. He made it clear what his intentions were for Game 4 Wednesday.

“The only way I don’t play,” Martinez said, “is if I wake up dead.”

Setup man Joaquin Benoit got the final two outs of the eighth, and closer Jose Valverde threw a scoreless ninth with the help of two fine defensive plays, Cabrera making a diving stop of Adrian Beltre’s grounder down the first base line and right fielder Don Kelly leaping into the corner to catch Mike Napoli’s long drive to the wall.

Instead of being on the verge of elimination, the Tigers can even the series Wednesday when right-hander Rick Porcello opposes Texas left-hander Matt Harrison.

“That would have been a tough hole to climb out of, down 3-0,” Kelly said. “Down 2-1, this is the best-case scenario. We still have a long way to go, but I like where we’re at.”

They didn’t like where they were at seven pitches in the game, the Rangers bunching singles by Ian Kinsler, Elvis Andrus and Hamilton for a run.

But Fister got Michael Young to ground into a double play and struck out Beltre to end the inning, and the 6-foot-8 right-hander blanked the Rangers on three hits through the next six innings to give Detroit a chance.

“He moved the ball in and out, to both sides of the plate,” Leyland said. “I thought he put on a pitching clinic.”

The Tigers tied it in the fourth on Martinez’s homer, a liner into the right-field seats, but after losing Young to a rib-cage strain and Ordonez to a broken ankle, it appeared they might lose Martinez, who grimaced as he headed toward the clubhouse to be examined.

One inning later, he was back in the batter’s box.

“It means a lot that he stayed in the game,” Cabrera said. “It means he wants to win. It shows he plays hurt. It shows he’s got a big heart.”

Leyland said he was “very concerned” when Martinez returned to the dugout, but he wasn’t about to panic.

“He got through it tonight, and hopefully he’ll get through it [Wednesday], and if he can’t, you know what? We’ll play somebody else,” Leyland said. “That’s who we are. That’s what you do this time of year. You find a way to win somehow.”

The Tigers did just that with a two-out rally in the fifth, as Jackson singled and took third on Ramon Santiago’s single. Up stepped Cabrera, by far Detroit’s most dangerous hitter.

Did Texas Manager Ron Washington consider walking Cabrera and taking his chances with Martinez, who was clearly aching?

“I’m not going to put another runner at second when the winning run is already at third,” Washington said.

Texas starter Colby Lewis jumped ahead of Cabrera with two strikes, but Cabrera reached for an outside fastball and poked it into the right-field corner for an RBI double and a 2-1 lead.

“The ball was supposed to be out of the zone,” Washington said. “He didn’t put it there.”

Beltre also winced his way through the game after fouling a ball off his left knee in the fourth. X-rays were negative, and the Rangers third baseman is expected to play Wednesday.

“He got smoked, but the way he played with what he went through was unbelievable,” Leyland said of Beltre. “These are two tough teams.”