09/20/26 04:45:00
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09/20 16:43 CDT Playoff hopeful Blue Jays avoid series sweep with 7-2 win over
AL West-leading Texas
Playoff hopeful Blue Jays avoid series sweep with 7-2 win over AL West-leading
Texas
By STEPHEN HAWKINS
AP Baseball Writer
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) --- Toronto leadoff hitter Brett Bateman reached base and
scored three times, twice knocked in by Nathan Lukes, and the Blue Jays beat
the AL West-leading Texas Rangers 7-2 on Sunday to avoid a series sweep in the
matchup of playoff hopefuls.
Bateman walked twice against Texas starter Jacob deGrom (11-10), scoring on a
sacrifice fly by Lukes in the first and a go-ahead RBI single by Kazuma Okamota
in the fifth. Bateman had a leadoff double to ignite a four-run seventh,
scoring on a single by Lukes.
With six games remaining, the Rangers (78-78) kept a one-game lead in the AL
West after Houston (77-79) lost 4-2 at home to NL East champion Atlanta. The
Astros own the division tiebreaker.
Toronto (77-79) had the same record as the Astros, and both were 2 1/2 games
behind the Chicago White Sox for the third and final wild card.
Spencer Arrighetti (9-9), the second of seven Blue Jays pitchers, got the win
despite giving up the only Texas runs over his two innings.
DeGrom, who has been dealing with mild groin tightness, left with the bases
loaded in the fifth and the Rangers down 3-2. Left-handed reliever Robert
Garcia induced an inning-ending double-play grounder on his first pitch.
DeGrom allowed five hits, walked four and hit another batter. The two-time Cy
Young Award winner's two strikeouts put his season total at 196, just short of
his fifth career 200-strikeout season.
Lukes had a single and scored on Sean Keys' double in the third for a 2-0 Blue
Jays lead. Texas got even on Jake Burger's 27th homer, a two-run shot in the
fourth that went 398 feet and deflected off Bateman's extended glove when he
leaped at the wall in center field.
Up next
Toronto opens a three-game series in Baltimore on Monday night. The Rangers
have a day off before opening their final home series Tuesday night against the
New York Mets.
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