Brett Lawrie’s walkoff homer gives Blue Jays an 8-7 victory over Rangers

Canadian Brett Lawrie hit a walkoff solo homer to give the Toronto Blue Jays an 8-7 victory over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.

He sent a 3-1 pitch from reliever Mike Adams (0-1) over the wall in left-centre field for the victory. Kelly Johnson homered and drove in four runs and Jose Bautista added a solo shot as the Blue Jays improved to 13-11.

Francisco Cordero (1-1) got the win despite blowing a save opportunity in the top half of the ninth inning. He allowed three straight singles to centre field, with Michael Young driving in Ian Kinsler with the tying run.

Texas (17-7) jumped out to an early lead by tagging Toronto rookie Drew Hutchison for five runs in the second inning. The youngster settled down after that and worked six innings in his first start at Rogers Centre.

Hutchison struck out the first four batters before he was roughed up. Kinsler hit a two-run double as the Rangers batted around in the frame.

The 21-year-old right-hander allowed seven hits and finished with five strikeouts and two walks.

The Blue Jays cut the deficit in the third inning on back-to-back home runs.

Johnson hit his fifth homer of the season, a three-run shot that bounced out off the top of the fence in left-centre field. Bautista followed with a no-doubt solo blast to left field, his fourth homer of the year.

The Rangers took advantage of some sloppy Toronto defence in the fourth inning to make it a 6-4 game. Hutchison threw a comebacker to Yunel Escobar for a force play at second but the shortstop couldn’t come up with it.

With runners on the corners and one out, Hutchison got Kinsler to ground weakly to second base. Johnson stepped on the bag for the force but a run scored when his throw to first base was wild.

Rangers starter Neftali Feliz was pulled after walking the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth. Left-hander Robbie Ross came on in relief and got Adam Lind to hit into a double play and Edwin Encarnacion to ground out.

The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the seventh with nobody out and scratched out two runs with ground balls in the infield. Johnson then lashed a sharp single to centre field off reliever Alexi Ogando that scored Jeff Mathis and gave Toronto its first lead of the game.

Announced attendance was 18,774 and the game took two hours 56 minutes to play.

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