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ARLINGTON, Texas -- Rick Porcello went to his normal spot on the Detroit Tigers bench after the eighth inning. He had every intention to finish what he started. With a few pitches to spare, Porcello got his first career shutout, a 6-0 three-hitter over the sinking Texas Rangers on Thursday night for Detroits seventh consecutive victory. "This is extremely special to me," Porcello said. Porcello (10-4) threw 105 pitches through eight innings. With relievers moving around in the bullpen, manager Brad Ausmus and pitching coach Jeff Jones discussed what to do with the right-hander, who did his best to avoid eye contact and then needed only 10 pitches in the ninth to get three groundball outs. "You just worry about the pitch count. We dont want him going much above 115, maybe top out at 120," Ausmus said. "A 15-pitch inning is a good inning, so its kind of a tall task to ask him to get through the inning, but he was able to do it." Porcello limited the Rangers to three singles and benefited from three 4-6-3 double plays (second baseman Ian Kinsler to shortstop Eugenio Sanchez to first baseman Miguel Cabrera), including one after Texas had consecutive hits in the sixth. "The ability to get two outs with one pitch is huge. I was able to execute those sinkers," Porcello said. "Without those guys, I dont know that I would have been able to go nine." The right-hander struck out six and walked three, throwing 72 of his season-high 115 pitches for strikes. It was only the second complete game for Porcello in 164 major league starts -- all for the Tigers since 2009, and he has won at least 10 games in each of his six seasons. Miguel Cabrera had four hits and Austin Jackson hit a two-run single for the AL Central leaders, who completed a three-game sweep. While the Tigers have the longest winning streak in the majors, Texas has the longest losing streak at eight in a row. The Rangers, who last lost eight in a row in August 2005, are 1-6-1 their last eight series overall and 16-22 at home. "We know were a way better team than the way were playing right now," said shortstop Elvis Andrus, who grounded into that double play in the sixth. "Hes got a pretty good sinker. We all knew that. He made the right pitch at the right moment." Rangers rookie Nick Martinez (1-5) allowed six hits and walked five of the 18 batters he faced in 2 1-3 innings. Detroit went ahead to stay in the second when Torii Hunter drew a bases-loaded walk before Cabreras deep inning-ending flyout with the bases loaded. Victor Martinez drew a walk to start the third before a double by Nick Castellanos set up Jacksons two-run single. After two more walks, Nick Martinez was pulled and Kinsler greeted reliever Scott Baker with an RBI single that made it 4-0. Kinsler, the three-time All-Star for the Rangers who was traded to Detroit for Prince Fielder last off-season, homered in his first at-bat Tuesday in his return to Texas as an opponent. Kinsler went 6 for 14 in the series with four runs and four RBIs. With two hits in all three games, Kinsler extended his streak of multihit games to five and is hitting .302 on the season. He has 31 multihit games, one behind Houstons Jose Altuve for the most in the majors. J.D. Martinez had a sacrifice fly for the Tigers, but went 0 for 4 to snap his 14-game hitting streak that was the longest active run in the majors. Cabrera had three singles before his AL-high 28th double in the eighth drove home Kinsler. "Were playing good baseball as a team, and were confident as a group right now," Kinsler said. "Its just a lot of fun playing ball that way." NOTES: It was the fourth shutout for the Tigers this season. Texas was held scoreless for the fourth time. ... Rangers LHP Derek Holland, on the DL since off-season left knee surgery, took fielding practice off the mound. He is scheduled to throw a simulated game Saturday in Arlington. Holland said he feels great, "like I can do everything." ... Texas GM Jon Daniels said his team cant focus on all the injuries -- a major league-high 14 players on the disabled list. He said a big thing right now is player development at the big league level with the youngsters having to play. .Heres Ralph the Dog with the crew here at TSN jumping into the James Duthie TradeCentre selfie: Happy to drop by! RT @TSN_Sports: @tsnjamesduthie: Take this Ellen. . Portuguese sides Benfica and Porto also advanced to the last eight while Basel overcame an early red card to win 2-1 at Salzburg and progress from a last-16 second leg that was briefly suspended because of crowd trouble. Lyon, Valencia and AZ Alkmaar will also be in Fridays draw in Nyon, Switzerland, where the team to avoid will be Juventus -- even though the Italian champions made heavy work of their all-Italian last-16 match against Fiorentina. http://www.nflpanthersgearofficial.com/ ... on-jersey/. Horford is out 3-to-4 months with a torn pectoral muscle for the Hawks, who have won two straight and five of six games. Atlanta improved to 2-0 on the residency with Saturdays 93-91 triumph over Minnesota, as Ivan Johnson scored his teams final four points, including the game-winning free throw with 4. . Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema scored two goals each Wednesday night in a 6-1 rout of Schalke in the first leg of their second-round matchup. "We played a very, very good match," Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "We got well into the match, scored two early goals and that opened the game and left us able to counter and to use the speed of our players. . He will play 10th-seeded Feliciano Lopez in Sundays final, after the Spanish left-hander defeated Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7), 6-4.Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Brandon Bass and Jared Sullinger combined for 55 points, Rajon Rondo had 13 assists and the Boston Celtics pulled away for a 101-90 win Wednesday night that kept the Philadelphia 76ers winless. Bass scored 23 off the bench, Sullinger added 22 with nine rebounds and Marcus Thornton had 13 points for the Celtics, who snapped a three-game losing streak. Tony Wroten scored 21 points off the bench to lead the Sixers, who returned home from an 0-4 road trip and fell to 0-11 on the season. Henry Sims added 14 points in the loss, Luc Mbah a Moute and Michael Carter- Williams scored 11 apiece and Nerlens Noel had 10. The Sixers won three of the four meetings between the Atlantic Division rivals last season and were in line to make a run at their first win before Boston pulled away in the second half. The Celtics outshot the Sixers 52.5 percent to 37.5 percent in the third and fourth quarters after the score was tied 46-46 at halftime. The Sixers, who entered play losing by an average of 16.9 points per game, are four losses from matching the 1972-73 team for the worst start in franchise history. Noel said they lost energy in the second half. We didnt communicate as much on defense and they got some open shots, he said. Rondo does a great job running that team. Rondo had six assists in the third quarter, including an alley-oop to Jeff Green for a duunk during a 9-0 Celtics run that turned a two-point deficit into a seven-point lead.dddddddddddd Avery Bradley capped the spurt with a 3-pointer and Boston led by as many as eight before Wrotens 3 pulled the Sixers within 73-68 going into the fourth. Carter-Williams, making his first start of the season, scored seven straight Philadelphia points after Boston built an 11-point lead early in the fourth, but the Sixers never got closer than five in the last 12 minutes. Sullingers 3 and another alley-oop dunk by Green extended Bostons lead to 15 with 1:33 left. We just played faster (in the second half), said Sullinger. Coach challenged us at halftime to play harder, faster, smarter and thats what we did. Mbah a Moutes 3 sparked a 9-0 run in the first quarter that gave the Sixers an eight-point lead. They went up by nine in the second, but Thornton scored five points during a 15-4 Celtics flurry that gave the visitors the lead. Game Notes The Celtics will go from playing the worst team in the NBA to the best when they face the league-leading Grizzlies in Memphis on Friday ... The Sixers remain in Philadelphia to face Phoenix on Friday ... Bass came within four points of tying his career high of 27 set Dec. 3, 2010, for Orlando against Detroit. Four Magic players missed that game because of a stomach virus, including Dwight Howard. ' ' '