Jose Bautista rips one flat slider to beat Yu Darvish, Rangers

Just as they did while winning 10 consecutive games in mid-May, the Texas Rangers are now finding different ways to lose from night to night.

A decent outing by starter Yu Darvish on Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre was undone by one slider left up over the middle to Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, who ripped it into the left-field stands for a three-run homer in the fifth inning.

The Rangers, who had climbed back into second place in the American League West with their win streak, including nine at home, are now in third place, 10 games behind the first-place Astros (who won Saturday night) and two games under .500.

The Rangers offense, which had seemingly snapped out of a season-long funk of late, couldn’t muster much of an attack against Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada.

Shin-Soo Choo’s lead-off homer on the first pitch of the game was the Rangers’ only run. Estrada allowed four hits and a walk in six innings and struck out eight.

Texas had just six hits total and struck out 12 times, making it 40 strikeouts combined over the past three games.

The Rangers didn’t have enough base runners Saturday to mount much of a threat. Besides Choo’s homer, only three Rangers got past first base. Two of them came in the fourth when Rougned Odor singled and moved to third on Ryan Rua’s double. But Joey Gallo took strike 3 to end the inning.

That should start with fewer strikeouts. Rangers hitters have 430 strikeouts, second most in the American League behind the Tampa Bay Rays (538).

“That’s a guy who really has a good feel how to use [the changeup] behind in the count,” Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos said of Estrada. “It’s slow and it’s hard to stay back and hit it good.

“One thing we can get better at is hitting with two strikes. This is a team that has really good hitters who can go the other way, and I think we have to start doing that.”

Before Baustista’s homer, Darvish walked No. 9 hitter Luke Maile with one out and nobody on. Darvish struggled locating his fastball against Maile and after getting Kevin Pillar to fly out for the second out, Devon Travis singled on a flat slider to set up the three-run homer.

“I think that walk was the key to the inning,” Chirinos said. “We were trying to get ahead with the fastball and he lost his release point to that guy and it gave them a chance for Bautista to hit with two guys on.”

Bautista jumped on the slider that stayed out over the middle of the plate for the decisive blow.

“He missed his spot, that’s it,” Chirinos said. “If he makes his pitches down and away he’s going to get those guys out.

This story was originally published May 27, 2017 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Jose Bautista rips one flat slider to beat Yu Darvish, Rangers."