Rangers strike early and Nick Martinez keeps Blue Jays at bay

Nick Martinez threw six outstanding innings to earn the win and the offense came out swinging in the first as the Rangers evened the series with a 6-1 win over the Blue Jays Tuesday at Globe Life Park.

How Rangers pitchers fared: Nick Martinez held the Blue Jays to one run on two hits and three walks over 6 1/3 innings to earn the win. Toronto didn’t score until the seventh inning, after Martinez walked Justin Smoak with one out. Jose Leclerc took over for him and walked the bases loaded before allowing a run-scoring single by Ryan Goins, which pulled the Jays to within 5-1.

How Rangers hitters fared: The Rangers scored four times in the first against Blue Jays’ started Francisco Liriano. Delino DeShields led off with a bunt single, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch. He scored on Adrian Beltre’s groundout. Carlos Gomez homered, follow by a Rougned Odor single and run-scoring double by Jonathan Lucroy. Mike Napoli singled in Lucroy to make it 4-0. Napoli tried to reach second on the play but was thrown out to end the inning.

Nomar Mazara led off the fifth with a homer to push the lead to 5-0. Adrian Beltre’s solo homer in the eighth pushed the lead back to 6-1.

Notables: Beltre moved ahead of Harmon Killebrew and tied Miguel Cabrerra in 35th place all-time with 1,585 RBIs ... Beltre’s homer in the eighth gives him 447, two shy of tying Jeff Bagwell and Vlad Guerrero for 39th all-time ... It’s extra-base hit 1,079 for Beltre, who snapped a tie with Cal Ripken to take sole possession of 23rd place all-time ... Mazara’s homer in the fifth is his fourth first-pitch homer this season.

This story was originally published June 20, 2017 at 10:19 PM with the headline "Rangers strike early and Nick Martinez keeps Blue Jays at bay."