Odour, Cabrera go deep, Rangers beat Blue Jays 10-2

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/05/2019 (2658 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Rougned Odour, Asdrúbal Cabrera and Drew Smyly all found reasons to exhale.

Odour and Cabrera each homered and combined for seven RBIs, Smyly came off the injured list to pitch four strong innings and the Texas Rangers rolled past the Toronto Blue Jays 10-2 on Sunday.

Odor had been in an 0-for-21 slump that reduced his average to .122 before he drove a pitch from Clay Buchholz over the back bullpen wall in right-centre field for a two-run homer in the second inning.

“I was just working on my timing to be on time with the ball,” Odor said. “Today I did it in the game, and I feel really good.”

Odor’s homer followed a run-scoring double by Cabrera, who had been hitless in his previous nine at-bats. Odour, who had been dropped from second to sixth in the batting order, also had a run-scoring single in the fifth.

In the third, Cabrera added a three-run homer — his seventh of the season, all at home — to put Texas ahead 6-1.

“Obviously, the ball carries pretty well to right,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said, “and (Cabrera) does a really good job of getting those pitches that are up out over the plate and kind of hooking them into right field.”

Cabrera drove in four runs and Odor plated three.

“We’ve been waiting for Rougie to have a day when he could just breathe,” Woodward said. “It’s really good to see him just have a little bit of success.

“As far as Smyly goes, that’s as good as I’ve seen him.”

Smyly held Toronto to one run and two hits in his first game since April 19. He had been sidelined with mid-arm nerve tightness.

“It was a nice little breather,” Smyly said. “I reset my body and let my arm kind of build up more strength.”

After a leadoff double and a walk in the fourth, Smyly induced a double-play grounder from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and struck out Rowdy Tellez.

Guerrero, one of baseball’s top prospects, was 0 for 4, dropping his average to .167 (5 for 30).

The first hit Smyly surrendered was Eric Sogard’s two-out homer in the third.

Kyle Dowdy (2-1) entered the game to start the fifth with a 7-1 lead and pitched two scoreless innings.

Texas won the final two games of the three-game series to move back to .500, while the Blue Jays ended their road trip at 1-5.

Buchholz (0-2) allowed seven runs in four innings, falling to 0-5 in his career at Texas.

“To only go four, that’s another blow but hopefully us as starters can go deeper into games and help our bullpen out,” Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo said.

The Blue Jays used four relief pitchers before catcher Luke Maile made his first major league pitching appearance in the eighth. Maile retired all three batters he faced and struck out Shin-Soo-Choo, who had three singles and a walk in his first four plate appearances.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Rangers: 1B Ronald Guzman (strained right hamstring) went 2 for 5 with a homer and double in the first game of a rehab assignment at Double-A Frisco. Manager Chris Woodward said Guzman would rejoin the Rangers Friday at Houston.

ECONOMY CLASS

Smyly’s 68 pitches were the fewest in his five starts, but he lasted less than four innings in three of those. To make room for him on the active roster, the Rangers optioned rookie right-hander Wei-Chieh Huang to Triple-A Nashville.

DUELING ELVISES

Toronto rookie right-hander Elvis Luciano faced Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus once in each of the last two games of the series. Luciano retired Andrus on a flyball on Saturday, and Andrus lined a two-run single on Sunday.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

The Warm-Up

Winnipeg Jets Game Days

On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.

Sign up for The Warm-Up

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

UP NEXT

Blue Jays: Return home to begin a three-game series against AL Central-leading Minnesota on Monday. RHP Marcus Stroman (1-4, 2.20 ERA) will oppose Twins LHP Martín Pérez (4-0, 3.41).

Rangers: At Pittsburgh on Tuesday, RHP Adrian Sampson (0-1, 3.58), seeking his first major league win in his ninth start, will go against LHP Steven Brault (0-1, 8.31), making his first start since April 27 of last year. Sampson pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Pirates in his previous start on April 30.

___

More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports