Asdrubal Cabrera has a history of hitting well off Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Clay Buchholz, and the Texas Rangers third baseman continued that trend on Sunday afternoon.
Cabrera drove in four runs in the first three innings off Buchholz to get the Rangers off to a good start in their 10-2 win in the series finale in Arlington, Texas.
Cabrera came into the game 9-for-18 in his career off Buchholz with two doubles and two home runs. He doubled in the first run of the game in a three-run second inning, and smashed a three-run homer in the third to make it 6-1.
Rougned Odor ended an 0-for-21 skid with a two-run homer in the second inning and finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs for Texas in the rubber game of the series. Shin-Soo Choo had three hits and scored two runs, and Elvis Andrus drove in two runs for the Rangers.
Buchholz (0-2) went four innings, allowing seven runs and eight hits with one strikeout and one walk. Buchholz fell to 0-5 in six career starts at Globe Life Park in Arlington with a 7.26 ERA.
Texas left-hander Drew Smyly made his first start since April 19 and went four innings, allowing one run and two hits, striking out five and walking two. Smyly, who underwent Tommy John surgery in the summer of 2017, was coming off the 10-day injured list because of fatigue in his throwing arm and was limited to 68 pitches.
Kyle Dowdy (2-1) threw two shutout innings of relief to earn the win.
Odor came in 2-for-32 with 16 strikeouts in seven games since returning from a 10-day stay on the injured list with a sprained right knee. He came up behind Cabrera in the second inning and lifted a 2-2 curveball over the fence in right to make it 3-0.
Eric Sogard hit an up-and-in 3-2 fastball over the fence in right with two outs in the third to cut the lead to 3-1, but the Rangers came back with seven straight runs, highlighted by the three-run homer from Cabrera.
--Field Level Media
Toronto | Texas | |
Clay Buchholz | Player | Drew Smyly |
Loss | W/L | No Decision |
4.0 | IP | 4.0 |
1 | Strikeouts | 5 |
8 | Hits | 2 |
15.75 | ERA | 2.25 |
Toronto | Texas | |
Billy McKinney | Player | Shin-Soo Choo |
1 | Hits | 3 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
1 | TB | 3 |
1.000 | Avg | .750 |