Rangers Lose 5th Straight
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ARLINGTON, Texas — A pair of two-run homers paced the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-1 win over the punchless Texas Rangers Saturday at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.
The Blue Jays won their fourth straight game and their ninth in the last 12 to improve to five games under .500 for the first time since April 25.
The Rangers dropped their fifth straight game and fell to 4-10 in the month of June. They’re 1-5 on this 11-game homestand and have now gone 14 games since collecting more than 10 hits in a game, the worst stretch since 1988.
Adam Lind sat on a 1-2 curveball from Rangers starter Josh Lindblom and drove it off the foul pole in right to give Toronto a 2-0 lead before Texas even came to the plate in the first. Lind recorded another multi-hit game in the fourth inning with a single before Colby Rasmus belted his second homer of the series into the right-field seats to give the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead.
Lind has been one of the hottest hitters in the game since May 23. During the past 18 games, he is hitting .444 with 12 multi-hit games and four homers and 12 RBIs. He’s now up to .345 on the
season, and he seems to have regained the sweet stroke that won him a Silver Slugger award in 2009.
The Rangers turned in another dreadful offensive performance by going 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position. In the 14 games they’ve played in June, they’ve only scored 2.64 runs per game, the lowest mark in baseball.
Five Rangers reached base in the fourth and fifth innings, but none scored. Texas finally broke through in the sixth inning by stringing three straight one-out singles together before Leonys Martin gave the Rangers their first run in 22 innings by outrunning a potential inning-ending double play in the sixth inning, allowing Nelson Cruz to score on the fielder’s choice.
The Rangers loaded the bases in the fourth inning, but Chris McGuinness struck out on three pitches to end the inning without anything to show for it.
Two more baserunners were wasted in the fifth.
R.A. Dickey held the Rangers to a run on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings in the second start of his career against the team that drafted him in 1996. He then turned the game over to a bullpen that only allowed two singles the rest of the way.
Martin, with his three-hit effort — was the lone bright spot for Texas. He was also the first Ranger to steal a base on the current homestand.
