Toronto runs Rangers’ losing streak to six
If this were boxing, the Texas Rangers would be staggering to their corner, dazed and confused.
Smelling salts, a splash of cold water, whatever necessary would be applied.
The Rangers lost their sixth consecutive game Friday night at Rogers Centre, a season high even with their poor April start.
The Toronto Blue Jays hit four home runs — including a first-inning grand slam by Edwin Encarnacion — to hand Texas its most lopsided defeat of the season. The Rangers dropped to .500 for the first time since May 30.
Yovani Gallardo (6-6) will try to stop the hemorrhaging at 12:07 p.m. Saturday against left-hander Matt Boyd, who will be making his major league debut.
As well as Gallardo has pitched in the last month, it still might not be enough. The Rangers are 2-2 in his past four starts, despite him allowing just two earned runs over his last 25 innings.
“We’ll see if we can’t find a way to stop this bleeding,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said.
That will have to start with the struggling offense, which has scored more than three runs only twice in the past 10 games.
The losing stretch, which includes losing seven of their past eight, followed their best stretch of the season in which the Rangers went 21-9 from May 20 to June 19.
“Every club has certain stretches,” Banister said. “This is a stretch in the season where we’re going to find out just how tough we are and how much grit we have. We talk about putting a foot down. Didn’t do it tonight, look forward to doing it [Saturday].
“One thing we’re not going to do is stop competing.”
Well, sort of. With Toronto leading 11-2 in the eighth inning, the Rangers opted to use a position player on the mound for the 10th time in team history.
The Blue Jays built a 7-2 lead by the third inning against Nick Martinez, who allowed nine runs (a career-high-tying eight earned) on nine hits with four walks in six innings. Toronto added two more in the fifth to take a 9-2 lead.
“I fell behind a lot of guys,” said Martinez, who dropped to 5-4. “I was just trying to find the strike zone.”
Encarnacion hit his second homer of the game and 16th this season as the Blue Jays added two more in the seventh against reliever Ross Detwiler. It was the 20th multi-homer game of Encarnacion’s career.
Utility infielder Adam Rosales pitched the eighth and surrendered a homer to Danny Valencia to make it 12-2. He’s the first Rangers position player to pitch since J.P. Arencibia last August.
Since having their run of 17 consecutive quality starts snapped Tuesday, Rangers starters have thrown just one in their past four games.
“My expectations are for the guys to compete and go out there and do what they’re capable of doing,” Banister said. “We’re not doing, really, what we’re setting out to do. These guys have done a terrific job. This stretch doesn’t wash away anything that they’ve done previous to this.
“We need to figure out what we can do better. We’re not pitching like we were. Why is it? We need to make those adjustments and move forward.”
Prince Fielder gave Texas a 1-0 lead in the first with a solo home run — his 12th of the season and 300th of his career. He and his father, Cecil, join Bobby and Barry Bonds as the only father-son duos to each hit 300-plus home runs.
“Definitely happy about it, but unfortunately we didn’t get the win,” said Prince, who later doubled for his major league-leading 31st multi-hit game.
Nothing but winning, Fielder said, can help snap the Rangers out of their funk.
“Obviously, if we win one, everybody feels a little better,” he said. “The offense and pitching need to be on the same page.”
Stefan Stevenson, 817-390-7760
Twitter: @StevensonFWST
This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Toronto runs Rangers’ losing streak to six."