Rangers 6 Blue Jays 4
TORONTO — Ronald Guzman hit a tie-breaking two-run single off Marcus Stroman in the sixth inning and the Texas Rangers recovered from blowing a four-run lead to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-4 on Friday.
Joey Gallo hit a two-run homer and Nomar Mazara drove in a pair of runs as the Rangers (10-17) built up a 4-0 advantage in the first inning before seeing it slip away.
Steve Pearce hit a two-run double and Kevin Pillar and Justin Smoak drove in a run apiece for the Blue Jays (14-11).
Smoak had four hits while putting on a display of aggressive base-running throughout the game. He was thrown out on the basepaths twice — at home plate in the first and at third in the third inning — and stretched a single into a double in the fifth, thanks to an off-line throw from Gallo in left field.
Mazara had three hits for the Rangers.
Mike Minor (2-1) allowed four runs and nine hits over six innings and struck out four for the win. Keone Kela pitched the ninth for his fifth save.
Stroman (0-3), pitching in his 100th career game, rebounded from the rough first inning to retire 12 of the next 14 batters he faced before running into trouble again in the sixth.
The right-hander allowed back-to-back singles to open the inning, and Guzman’s one-out base hit cashed in both runners to end Stroman’s night after 5 1/3 innings. Stroman allowed all six runs over eight hits while walking one and striking out four.
Toronto chipped away with runs in the first, second and third to tie the game 4-4.
Teoscar Hernandez scored from third on Smoak’s soft liner to right in the first. Hernandez reached on a double — his 15th hit in 12 games since being recalled from triple-A — and advanced to third on a wild pitch.
Pearce’s double cashed in Russell Martin and Aledmys Diaz, cutting Texas’s lead to 4-3 in the second. Martin hit a leadoff double and advanced to third on Minor’s second wild pitch of the night. He was initially called out before a video review overturned the umpire’s decision. Diaz was hit by a pitch.
Pillar tied the game with an RBI triple in the third, plating Yangervis Solarte from first.
Stroman provided some comic relief in the top of the third when he ran out of his shoe while sprinting to cover first base on a ground ball. He got the out, one sock on the infield dirt, before racing back to the infield turf to put his shoe back on.
NOTES: Attendance was 26,312. … The Blue Jays reinstated right-handed reliever John Axford from the bereavement list before the game and optioned left-hander Tim Mayza to triple-A Buffalo. … Toronto continues the three-game series Saturday afternoon.