Jays Keep Winning, Down Rangers 5-2
Posted April 23, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Scott Richmond pitched six strong innings and Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay and Alex Rios each hit home runs as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Texas Rangers 5-2 on Thursday night.
The Blue Jays won the series 2-1 and have won five series to open the season, something they have never done before. Rios’s home run with a runner on in the fifth was his first of the season and proved decisive.
Richmond, a native of North Vancouver, B.C., gave a solid performance before a crowd of 15,487 at the Rogers Centre on a day when the Blue Jays needed some good news about their pitching.
Earlier Thursday the team had put left-handed pitchers Ricky Romero and B. J. Ryan on the 15-day disabled list.
Romero, a rookie starter who has impressed early on, has a strained muscle on his right side, while Ryan, the team’s struggling closer, has a tight trapezius muscle.
Richmond (2-0) held the Rangers to two runs on six hits. He gave up two home runs, while striking out a career-high eight in six innings.
Brandon League took over in the seventh, while Jesse Carlson and Shawn Camp pitched eighth.
Scott Downs, who manager Cito Gaston said before the game was not available to pitch in the finale against Texas, pitched a perfect ninth for his first save of the season.
The team announced after the game it has recalled right-hander Bryan Bullington from triple-A Las Vegas. In four relief appearances this season, Bullington is 1-1 with 1.86 ERA.
Rangers starter Kevin Millwood (1-2) gave up just five hits over seven innings, but three home runs proved costly.
The Blue Jays hit more than one home run in an inning just six times last season. Toronto tied that mark in the second inning when Wells and Overbay went deep for solo shots.
In each case it was their third home run of the season, with Wells leading off the inning by hitting the first-pitch fastball over the fence in left-centre to end a 0-for-14 drought.
It was his 180th career home run with Toronto, moving him past Jesse Barfield (179) and into fourth place all-time. Wells trails now trails Carlos Delgado (336), Joe Carter (203) and George Bell (202) Joe Carter (203).
Overbay hit took 3-2 fastball over the centre-field fence with two out to give himself a six-game hitting string.
Josh Hamilton cut the Blue Jays lead to 2-1 with one out in the fourth when he hit a 2-1 fastball to left for his second home run of the season.
Hank Blalock followed with a double to right and Nelson Cruz dumped a single to right that put runners at the corners.
Richmond then struck out Chris Davis on a tight curveball before Cruz stole second and David Murphy walked.
Taylor Tegarden brought his .083 batting average to the plate and lowered it to .077 by striking out on three pitches to end the threat.
The Blue Jays took a 4-1 lead in the fifth when Rios’s first homer of the season followed Aaron Hill’s two-out double.
Chris Davis hit his third homer of the season with two out in the sixth to make it a 4-2 game.
Scott Rolen’s two-out single against Jason Jennings in the eighth inning scored Toronto’s fifth run.
