ARLINGTON -- The Tigers saw opposite ends of career nights in their series opener against the Rangers on Friday at Globe Life Field: Riley Greene had a good night, Tyler Alexander had a bad night, and it came together in a 7-6 loss.

Alexander entered the opener with a chance to pick up back-to-back wins for the first time in his career. Instead, it was a career night to forget.

In Detroit¡¯s defeat, the left-hander allowed a career-high seven runs, three home runs and eight hits through just three innings of work -- his shortest outing since returning to the rotation in late July.

He summed his night up in seven words.

¡°It was three innings worth of crap,¡± said Alexander, who is now 1-5 over his last six starts.

Against a hot-hitting Texas squad, Alexander gave up his first home run in the first inning -- a solo shot off the bat of Nathaniel Lowe, who sent the ball a Statcast-projected 449 feet to dead center: 1-0.

The damage was minimal, but then came the second inning.

After inducing a groundout to start things off, the Rangers reached on two consecutive singles, followed by a three-run homer from Ezequiel Duran: 4-0.

When the Tigers cut the lead in half the following frame, the score didn¡¯t look so bad. Then, Texas struck again with three runs in the bottom of the third, including a two-out, two-run homer from Mark Mathias: 7-2. Alexander's night was over.

Prior to Friday -- both as a starter and a reliever -- Alexander had not allowed more than three earned runs in any outing since April 29: He surrendered a combined 12 earned runs in four starts that month.

After the loss, Alexander, who was born in Chicago but grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area before being drafted out of TCU by the Tigers in 2015, said he didn¡¯t feel any nerves playing in his home state. He felt like he was making his pitches, but the game got away from him.

¡°It seemed like every ball they hit hard went over the fence,¡± he added.

Once Alexander was pulled from the game, Greene ramped things up and put the Tigers in a position to win. In the fifth inning, the rookie plated two runs on a triple that turned into a Little League home run as he advanced home on a throwing error.

His night was topped off by a two-run home run in the ninth inning to make it a one-run game, but -- with the tying run on first -- Rangers pitcher Jos¨¦ Leclerc struck out Javier Báez and Harold Castro swinging to close out the win.

Greene finished the game having posted a career-high three hits, three runs and four RBIs in five at-bats. While the outcome wasn¡¯t what he was hoping for, Greene echoed manager A.J. Hinch¡¯s postgame sentiments.

¡°[Tonight] just shows that we¡¯re never out of it," he said. "Whether we¡¯re down four runs or six runs. We scored six runs in one inning two days ago in Detroit. ... We¡¯re gonna fight until the last out.¡±