Rangers recap: Texas goes deep in Game 1 to beat Blue Jays at own game

The Toronto Blue Jays bashed their way into the playoffs with a league-leading 232 home runs. But it was the Texas Rangers who dialed long distance in Game 1 of the American League Division Series Thursday afternoon at Rogers Centre. Robinson Chirinos and Rougned Odor both homered to lead the Rangers to a 5-3 win. Game 2 is at 11:30 a.m. Friday in Toronto.

Pitching: Starter Yovani Gallardo retired the first nine batters before a lead-off single in the fourth by Ben Revere. After a walk, Revere scored on Edwin Encarnacion’s slow tapper to third, which reserve Hanser Alberto tried to barehand but had no play. Gallardo retired the next two batters to preserve the 2-1 lead. In the fifth, doubles by Russell Martin and Kevin Pillar made it 4-2. Gallardo allowed two runs on four hits and a walk over five innings.

Rookie Keone Kela started the sixth and gave up a solo homer to Jose Bautista, which pulled the Blue Jays to within 4-3. Jake Diekman retired the side in the seventh, which included a great stop and throw far to his right by shortstop Elvis Andrus for the second out. Diekman retired the side on 10 pitches in the eighth, including getting Bautista to foul out to first baseman Mitch Moreland, who had replaced Mike Napoli at the start of the inning. Sam Dyson pitched the ninth to earn the save. Encarnacion led off with a single but Dyson retired the next three batters to end the game and earn his first save since Aug. 5.

Hitting: Texas scored twice in the third after Rougned Odor was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved to second on Chirinos’ groundout. Odor scored on Delino DeShields’ opposite-field single to right to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. With two outs, Adrian Beltre lined a single to center to score DeShields from second to make it 2-0. Odor started the fifth again being hit by a pitch and scored on Chirinos’ two-run homer to left-center. Odor’s one-out line drive homer to the right-field corner gave Texas a 5-3 lead. DeShields followed with a double and moved to third on an error but Choo flew out to end the inning.

Notable: Beltre was replaced by Alberto after lower back stiffness from a hard slide into second in the first inning. Alberto took over for him in the bottom of the third. Donaldson was replaced in the sixth after being kneed in the head by Odor in the fifth.

This story was originally published October 8, 2015 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: Texas goes deep in Game 1 to beat Blue Jays at own game."