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Sports

Struggling Rangers continue homestand versus Blue Jays

By Sports Network
Published | Updated

The start of an 11-game homestand hasn't gone as planned for the Texas Rangers, who will begin a four-game series versus the Toronto Blue Jays Thursday in Arlington.

Texas lost the last two portions of a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians and is coming off Wednesday's 5-2 setback. Leonys Martin homered and Jurickson Profar collected three hits for the Rangers, who have dropped five of seven games and sit one game behind Oakland for the AL West lead.

Nick Tepesch drew the start for Texas and allowed five runs and eight hits in five innings of work.

"When he got the ball over the plate they put some good swings on it and didn't miss it," Rangers manager Ron Washington said.

The Rangers, who will also host the Athletics for four games on this homestand, hope Yu Darvish can right the ship Thursday.

Darvish has posted three straight no-decisions and is 0-1 in his last four trips to the hill. Darvish gave up three runs -- two earned -- in seven innings of a 4-3 loss at Toronto the last time out on Saturday. The Japanese right-hander is 7-2 in 13 starts with a 2.75 ERA and 2-1 in four career starts against the Blue Jays.

Toronto split a shortened series with the Chicago White Sox and earned a 7-5 win in 10 innings on Tuesday.

Jose Bautista's homer tied the game in the ninth inning and Rajai Davis scored the go-ahead run on a Ramon Troncoso wild pitch in the 10th. Chien-Ming Wang made his Toronto debut and allowed five runs and 10 hits in 7 1/3 innings for the no-decision.

"The game could have went either way, but he settled in and started the changing the way he was approaching their guys and that made all the difference," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of Wang.

Brett Cecil threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief for the win and Casey Janssen pitched the 10th for his 13th save.

Esmil Rogers gets the nod for the Jays Thursday and he is 1-2 with a 3.60 ERA in 25 games (2 starts). He allowed one run in four innings in last Friday's 6-1 win over the Rangers and did not record a decision. The right-hander has no record and a 2.45 ERA in five matchups (1 start) against Texas.

The Blue Jays took two of three from Texas in a series north of the border last weekend, but the Rangers have won six of the past nine meetings.