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Tigers 4, Rangers 1

DETROIT (AP) -- Jim Leyland knows baseball isn't a complicated game.

His Detroit Tigers proved his point Tuesday.

The Tigers gave up 13 runs in the first game of a day-night doubleheader with the Texas Rangers but allowed only one in the second to gain a split.

"It's pretty simple -- it comes down to whether your team pitches or not," Leyland said. "We didn't pitch good in the first game, and we pitched very well in the second game. That's what it is about."

Texas hit seven homers to win the opener 13-6, but rookie Jair Jurrjens and three relievers combined on a seven-hitter in the Tigers' 4-1 victory in the nightcap.

"You just have to hit the reset button when the first game goes like that," said Jason Grilli, who pitched two shutout innings in Detroit's win.

The split, combined with a win by the Yankees, left the Tigers four games behind New York in the AL wild-card race. The Tigers fell 6½ games behind first-place Cleveland in the AL Central. The Indians beat Chicago 8-3.

"We're a huge, huge long shot for the division, but we've got a legitimate chance at the wild card," Leyland said. "We've got to keep taking care of business and, obviously, we'll need some help."

Jurrjens (2-1) was making his fourth major-league start and hadn't pitched since Aug. 26 because of shoulder problems. He was activated from the disabled list before the game and gave up one run and three hits in five innings.

"I was getting stiff between innings because of the cold wind, but I wasn't hurting on the mound," he said. "I just wanted to get through five innings."

The Rangers, who took an 11-0 lead in the first game, went up 1-0 on Marlon Byrd's sacrifice fly in the first inning of the nightcap, but Brandon McCarthy (5-9) couldn't survive the bottom of the inning.

Curtis Granderson started the inning with a walk, stole second and third and scored on Gary Sheffield's one-out RBI single. Sheffield's hit ended an 0-for-25 slump, his longest since an 0-for-29 skid in 2002.

After Sheffield stole second, Magglio Ordonez hit an RBI single and Ivan Rodriguez made it 3-0 with a two-out double, ending McCarthy's day.

"I felt fine, I just wasn't throwing well," McCarthy said. "I just couldn't make the pitches I wanted."

The Tigers added a run in the second on an RBI single by Placido Polanco. Todd Jones pitched a perfect ninth for his 34th save in 39 chances.

The Rangers didn't get an extra-base hit in the nightcap.

"We hit well in the first game, and they pitched well in the second game," Michael Young said. "We just couldn't get anything going."

The second-game loss ended Texas' season-best winning streak at six games, but the Rangers have won 13 of 16. They scored 52 runs in a stretch of three doubleheader games, starting with last month's historic 30-3 rout of Baltimore.

Game notes

The teams combined to use 48 players in the doubleheader. ... The Rangers activated McCarthy (shoulder) from the DL on Tuesday, but he responded with the Rangers' shortest start since Adam Eaton in August 2006.