Another Big Sexy milestone on Bartolo Colon's resurgency tour

The Bartolo Colon Resurgency Tour continued in Canada on Saturday afternoon and he's still getting rave reviews.

Colon, who turns 45 on May 24, was sparkling again as the Rangers beat the Blue Jays 7-4 at Rogers Centre. It's the Rangers' first three-game win streak of the season and Colon's first win of the year. He didn't figure in the decision in his first three starts, even when he took a perfect game into the eighth against the Astros on April 15.

It's Colon's 241st career win, tying him with Herb Pennock for 55th all-time. Pennock, a Hall of Fame lefty who played for 22 seasons beginning in 1912, died at 53 in 1948. Colon, who was a 24-year-old rookie in 1997, is two wins from tying Hall of Famer and fellow Dominican Republic native Juan Marichal. He's four wins from tying Dennis Martinez for the most wins by a Latin American pitcher.

Colon's MLB Tour

Bartolo Colon, 44, won his 241st game on Saturday, his first victory for the Rangers. He's the first pitcher to win a game with 11 franchises. A look at his wins:

"You're knocking names down that some of these young guys probably have to go back into the baseball encyclopedia to look up and see who they are," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "It's our history. It plays out right in front of us. It's special for me to even be apart of it and see it. You may not get the opportunity to see these type of things so you pay attention."

Colon went seven innings and passed Vida Blue for 88th all-time with 3,346 2/3 innings in his career. Colon said he didn't know where he stood in all-time innings or who Vida Blue is. He also didn't know that he's the first pitcher to ever win games for 11 franchises. Like teammate Adrian Beltre, who is climbing the all-time offensive leaderboards, Colon prefers to be in the dark. Beltre, 39, likes to say that he's hitting legendary milestones because he's old.

"Now I know, because you told me," Colon said. "It's something good for me and something good for my family. I know that I’m old too, but I thank God that I'm still playing and competing."

Colon relied more on his off-speed pitches, especially late in Saturday's win. He induced 10 groundball outs and walked none. He retired the first nine batters and 12 of the first 13. He allowed two solo homers, including Lourdes Gurriel's first-career homer, which elicited a big grin from Colon on the mound. He left after allowing three runs on six hits in seven innings.

"It's unbelievable," said Rangers' catcher Robinson Chirinos, who hit two homers, including a back-to-back drive to right field after Jurickson Profar's two-run homer, that gave Colon a 3-0 lead in the second inning. "For me, what impresses me about Bartolo is how much fun he has over there on the mound. He's been in the big leagues for 22 years and he’s still laughing, having fun. He reminds me of when I was kid and just the love for the game."

Chirinos said Colon has a similar outlook on the game as Beltre.

"They're breaking records but they're not chasing those records," he said. "They just want the uniform on to go out and compete. That’s what they do when they put that uni on."

And right now, the Colon Tour is a can't-miss event.

"Any time you watch Beltre, [Albert] Pujols, Ichiro [Suzuki], Colon, these guys who have been around, they're magical ball players," Banister said. "They'll be legends. I love watching them."

Rangers 7, Blue Jays 4

Inherited runners-scored—Kela 1-0. WP—Garcia 3. PB—Chirinos (1). Umpires—Home, Mike Winters; First, Tim Timmons; Second, Rob Drake; Third, Mike Muchlinski. T—3:00. A—39,176 (53,506).

This story was originally published April 28, 2018 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Another Big Sexy milestone on Bartolo Colon's resurgency tour."