Rangers 7 Blue Jays 6
ARLINGTON, Texas — Mitch Moreland led off the seventh inning with a tiebreaking home run against Octavio Dotel, lifting the Texas Rangers to a 7-6 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night.
Juan Rivera’s solo homer with two outs in the top of the seventh off rookie Cody Eppley tied it at 6.
Moreland sent an 0-1 pitch from Dotel (1-1) over the centre-field fence for his third homer.
Michael Young and Mike Napoli had two-run doubles in Texas’ six-run third.
Eppley (1-0) allowed one run and one hit in two innings for his first major league win.
Darren Oliver, subbing for injured Texas closer Neftali Feliz, gave up a pair of two-out hits in the ninth, but struck out Edwin Encarnacion swinging for his second save in three chances.
Texas starter Derek Holland gave up five runs and 11 hits in five-plus innings.
Adam Lind, who homered twice in Toronto’s 10-3 victory on Tuesday night, went 2 for 4 with an RBI. He didn’t hit one out — he had gone deep nine times in his last 12 road games against Texas.
Toronto starter Jo-Jo Reyes was on the mound for all six runs in the third, although none were earned because of a one-out throwing error by third baseman Encarnacion.
Reyes allowed six runs and five hits in 2 2-3 innings. He hasn’t won since June 13, 2008, having gone 23 starts since his last victory.
In the third, Lind’s sacrifice fly and Rivera’s RBI single gave Toronto a 2-0 advantage.
Reyes was on the verge of escaping the third, but Encarnacion’s bad throw on a one-out grounder by Yorvit Torrealba opened the door for the six unearned runs.
After Reyes recorded the second out of the inning by fanning Moreland, he walked Ian Kinsler.
Elvis Andrus followed with an RBI single, Young hit a two-run double, Nelson Cruz added an RBI single and Napoli’s two-run double chased Reyes to give the Rangers a 6-2 edge.
In the fourth, the Jays had a two-out rally of their own on Mike McCoy’s RBI single and Jose Bautista’s two-run double to cut the deficit to 6-5.