Arlington, TX – Adam Lind and Colby Rasmus each slugged two- run homers to power the Toronto Blue Jays to a 6-1 victory over Texas, handing the slumping Rangers a season-high fifth consecutive loss.
R.A. Dickey (6-8) helped the Blue Jays match a season best with their fourth straight win, which includes the first three tests of this four-game series. The veteran knuckleball specialist held Texas' struggling offense to one run while scattering seven hits and three walks over 5 2/3 innings.
"Early in the season, we struggled with the consistency of our starting rotation," said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. "We struggled in other areas too, but they're all starting to come together now. You can see it all starting to come together."
The Rangers have now mustered just six runs during their five-game skid, and went 1-for-13 with men in scoring position while stranding 11 baserunners on Saturday.
"It's just simple baseball," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "We need to get some base hits with runners in scoring position. We just haven't been able to do that. It's not one part of the lineup, it's up and down the lineup."
Leonys Martin went 3-for-4 and knocked in Texas' lone run, while Josh Lindblom (0-2) surrendered both Toronto homers in an otherwise solid six-inning stint to take the loss on his 26th birthday.
Lind and Jose Bautista each finished with two hits for the Blue Jays, with Rasmus scoring twice in the triumph.
The Blue Jays staked Dickey to a quick 2-0 lead when Bautista singled in the top of the first inning and Lind hammered a Lindblom curveball off the foul pole in right two batters later.
Lindblom proceeded to set down eight straight hitters after the blast until Lind ended the streak with a one-out base hit in the fourth. Rasmus followed with his 12th homer of the season to extend the margin to 4-0.
Texas' offense continued to sputter in the meantime, with Dickey cruising through the first three innings before getting into a bases-loaded situation with two out in the fourth. The reigning NL Cy Young winner averted damage, however, by striking out Chris McGuiness swinging.
The Rangers then put the first two men on in the fifth but again came up empty, before finally breaking through an inning later. Consecutive singles from Nelson Cruz, David Murphy and McGuiness filled the sacks with one out before Cruz came home on Martin's fielder's choice grounder to end Texas' string of 21 straight innings without scoring a run.
"I was able to make some bigger pitches with bases loaded and runners in scoring position to manage the outing enough to win," said Dickey.
Texas failed to seriously threaten thereafter, however, and Toronto tacked on two more runs in the ninth to put the game out of reach.
A walk to Rasmus in front of back-to-back singles by Maicer Izturis and Josh Thole brought in the first run, with Izturis crossing the plate on an error by Rangers' third baseman Adrian Beltre to make the score 6-1.
Game Notes
Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler (intercostal strain) was activated from the 15-day disabled list and played for the first time since May 17, but went 0- for-4 with a walk in his return ... Texas has now dropped five straight at home for the first time since Sept. 13-18, 2009 ... Toronto's Edwin Encarnacion ended 0-for-4 to have a 10-game hitting streak halted ... The Rangers have gone 3-for-27 with runners in scoring position during their current skid and had a 14th consecutive game with 10 hits or less, the club's longest stretch since going 15 straight to begin the 1988 season.
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