Odor, Cabrera go deep, Rangers beat Blue Jays 10-2
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) _ Rougned Odor and Asdrubal Cabrera each homered and combined for seven RBIs, 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-center field for a two-run homer in the second inning.
Odor’s homer followed a run-scoring double by Cabrera, who had been hitless in his previous nine at-bats. Odor 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.
Cabrera drove in four runs and Odor plated three.
Drew Smyly came off the injured list to hold Toronto to one run and two hits in four innings in his first game since April 19. He had been sidelined with mid-arm nerve tightness.
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.
Toronto 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.
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 Martin Perez (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.
Bregman’s grand slam powers Astros past Angels in Mexico
By CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) _ Alex Bregman hit a grand slam, his third homer during a two-game series in Mexico, and the Houston Astros blew out the Los Angeles Angels for the second straight day, 10-4 on Sunday.
The Astros, who won 14-2 on Saturday, hit eight home runs in front of pro-Houston crowds at Estadio de Beisbol de Monterrey. On Sunday, Carlos Correa had a two-run homer in the second inning and Michael Brantley hit a two-run shot in the ninth.
Bregman greeted Cam Bedrosian, who relieved starter Matt Harvey with two outs and the bases loaded in the fifth inning, by blasting a 2-0 fastball to the batter’s eye in center field. Harvey (1-3) was charged with five runs on five hits.
Justin Verlander (5-1) allowed homers in each of the first two innings but rebounded with four scoreless frames. He was lifted with one out in the seventh after Jonathan Lucroy took him deep for the second time.
Lucroy also had a two-run homer in the second. It was his ninth career multi-homer game, his first since 2016.
Verlander allowed four runs and struck out seven, giving up three homers in a game for the first time since last August.
David Fletcher also homered for the Angels, who had won six of seven before everything went wrong in Mexico.
Robinson Chirinos had an RBI double in the seventh for the Astros, and Jose Altuve had a run-scoring double in the ninth.
The regular-season games in Mexico were the first for both teams. Major League Baseball has committed to bringing games south of the border through 2021.
ALTUVE GIVES BACK
Altuve, who’s from Venezuela, said he had been sending aid to his home country amid a political crisis.
“There are several areas where help is needed in Venezuela, like medicines, food and education, and you have to choose where do you want to help,” Altuve said. “I decided to help with food because there are a lot of kids who don’t have anything to eat and they every day wake up with hunger, so I made a huge donation.”
Altuve did not provide further details about his contribution.
According to the United Nations, 1.9 million people in Venezuela are in need of food assistance, including 1.3 million children.
CORREA SOAKS IT IN
Correa arrived at the stadium four hours before the first pitch to record a game introduction in Spanish and then had fun using the public-address system to mock Altuve, who was doing interviews on the field.
Before the game, Correa exchanged jerseys and had a chat with soccer star Andre-Pierre Gignac, who threw the ceremonial first pitch.
UP NEXT
Angels: RHP Griffin Canning (0-0, 6.23 ERA) will make will his second career start on Tuesday at Detroit. Canning allowed four hits and three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Blue Jays on April 30.
Astros: RHP Gerritt Cole (2-4, 3.95) starts on Monday as Houston returns home to face Kansas City. Cole got his second win of the season with a dominant performance against the Twins on April 30, allowing one hit over seven innings with 11 strikeouts.