Major League Baseball

Blalock hits 2 HRs, Rangers top ChiSox

Published May. 11, 2009 1:19 a.m. ET

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Vicente Padilla keeps everyone thinking, even his own manager sometimes.

Hank Blalock homered twice, Padilla allowed one hit in seven innings and the Texas Rangers ended Bartolo Colon's dominance against them with a 7-1 win over the Chicago White Sox on Sunday.

Padilla (2-2) pitched around four walks in his second consecutive impressive outing. In his previous start against Seattle, the right-hander yielded only one hit and an unearned run in eight innings. He became the first Rangers starter to give up one hit or less in back-to-back starts.

"I think about three starts ago there were questions about his velocity," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "The thing about Padilla, you don't know if that's by design. He can pitch, he can manipulate the baseball. He can do some good things. It just took him a little while to get going. Now he's going and I certainly hope he stays healthy and continues to make starts for us."

Chris Davis also homered and added an RBI double for the Rangers, who hope to get Michael Young and Josh Hamilton back Tuesday when they start a three-game series against the Mariners.

Hamilton is eligible to come off the disabled list Tuesday. Young missed his second consecutive game with back stiffness. With Hamilton out, the Rangers have won nine of 13.

The Rangers finally touched up Colon, who had won 12 straight starts against them since Aug. 21, 2003, with a 2.50 ERA. It was the longest active winning streak against one opponent in the majors.

"I saw when they flashed it up on the scoreboard that he'd had a lot of success against us in the past," Davis said. "That was my first time seeing him but I thought we did a good job of making him throw a lot of pitches the first few innings and putting ourselves in position to score and try to chase him out of the game early. I think that's the key with one of those guys. You don't want him hanging around the game."

Davis' leadoff homer in the fifth started a four-run inning. With runners on first and second and one out, Omar Vizquel hit an RBI double down the right-field line. Colon's day ended when he allowed a two-out walk with the bases loaded to Marlon Byrd.

Clayton Richard, scheduled to start against Cleveland on Wednesday, relieved and gave up an RBI infield single to David Murphy that gave the Rangers a 5-1 lead.

Colon (2-3) said after the game he had no idea about his streak against Texas. He allowed five runs and five hits over 4 2-3 innings, with four strikeouts and three walks.

"Obviously, he was not good enough to win, but on the other side Padilla threw the ball real well and when (the opponent) throws the ball real well and the ballclub is not hitting that's pretty hard to put things together," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Blalock led off the second inning with a homer and tagged reliever D.J. Carrasco with a solo shot in the seventh, his ninth of the season. It was Blalock's seventh career multihomer game and first since April 11, 2006.

Davis added an RBI double off Lance Broadway in the eighth.

Jermaine Dye scored the only White Sox run in the second inning on Padilla's wild pitch. Chicago has been outscored 112-35 in its 16 losses this season.

"We are definitely not anywhere close to hitting on all cylinders. We haven't all year," Paul Konerko said. "You just keep grinding, that's all you can say. We're not good right now, we just need to get better."

Notes

Before the game, White Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said on the club's flagship radio pregame show that the team plans to send struggling right-hander Jose Contreras to the minors. Contreras, who is making $10 million this season, must first clear waivers to do that. He is 0-5 with an 8.19 ERA this season. "Whatever they decide to do is fine," Contreras said through a translator before the game. Afterward, Guillen said Contreras will travel to Cleveland with the team. ... Richard will start Wednesday in place of Contreras. Richard has a 4.32 ERA in 12 relief appearances.

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