ARLINGTON, Texas — On a day that was shaping up to be the most frustrating of the year for the Texas Rangers, their best player delivered once again.
Josh Hamilton and his season of superlatives added another entry Saturday as he hit a two-run walkoff homer in the 13th inning to rally the Rangers to an 8-7 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Hamilton, who has now hit 20 home runs, has been fighting an upper respiratory infection and said he hit the illness wall in the fifth inning, feeling woozy and seeing stars.
The only wall he saw in the 13th was the one he cleared on his 407-foot homer off Jason Frasor, ending a game that Texas trailed 7-5 heading into the bottom of the 13th.
Ian Kinsler drew a walk to open the bottom of the inning. Elvis Andrus followed with an RBI double to make it a one-run game. That set the stage for Hamilton, who hit a 1-2 splitter onto Greene's Hill for the fourth Texas homer of the game. Before the walk-off shot, Texas had gone 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position.
The Rangers knew it was gone as soon as Hamilton made contact.
"As soon as he hit the ball, I heard people yelling 'Tag! Tag!' but I was like, no that ball is out of here," said Andrus, who had a pair of sacrifice bunts before getting the first big hit of the 13th. "I am super glad he plays for us. A lot of people are telling me I'm his lucky charm, every time I get on base he hits one."
There was no luck going the Texas way heading into the bottom of the 13th. Texas got the leadoff hitter on base in the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th innings but failed to push across the winning run. Toronto finally got to the Texas bullpen in the top of the 13th with a pair of unearned runs.
But the Jays had to try and close the game with Ryota Igarashi, who threw 41 pitches Friday, and Frasor, who threw 31. After Igarashi allowed the walk and RBI double, Frasor drew the unfortunate task of facing Hamilton.
As he's done throughout a month of May that's included 11 home runs, Hamilton seized the moment despite not feeling well. Hamilton finished 2 for 6 with three RBI and had to get intravenous fluids and oxygen after the game.
"Every time I exerted myself I was lightheaded and seeing those little stars and couldn't figure it out," said Hamilton, who tried to motion to his teammates to take it easy on him at the mob scene at home plate. "It's exciting because that's Rangers baseball at its best right there. Guys scratching and battling the whole game. That's classic Rangers baseball over the last three or four years so it's exciting for us as players to see because we haven't really seen that out of ourselves this year."
What Texas saw before the 13th was mounting frustration.
Texas jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first, but Colby Lewis couldn't hold it as he was gone after 5 1/3 innings in his shortest outing of the year. He left with Texas behind 4-2, but that changed quickly.
The Rangers got back-to-back-to-back homers from Nelson Cruz, Yorvit Torrealba and Mitch Moreland off Henderson Alvarez in the sixth to regain the lead.
Again Toronto answered with a run in the seventh and that would be all the scoring until the 13th. It wasn't like Texas didn't have opportunities as the Rangers had 14 hits, drew five walks and had two batters hit.
But the chances kept going for naught until the 13th.
"We kept putting ourselves in position to get something done and they kept stopping it," said Texas manager Ron Washington. "We stopped them until the 13th when they finally put something across. And then we came back and did the same thing. Everyone up and down the whole lineup had opportunities to deliver. The final blow Hamilton delivered."
While Hamilton's homer was the difference, several other Rangers started to show signs of heating up. Cruz, whose homer went 426 feet, has now homered in consecutive games. Moreland also had three hits and raised his average to .309. Torrealba also homered for the second-consecutive game as all three of the homers in the sixth landing fittingly in the Toronto bullpen.
Winning is nothing new to Texas, which has dominated the American League West throughout the season. But winning a game they seemed destined to lose feels good to any team, even one that has represented the American League in back-to-back World Series.
Washington said Friday his team had been in a lull. The Rangers hadn't won consecutive games in two weeks before Saturday. Maybe their first walkoff victory of the season will snap them out of it.
"You want to get them (wins) when you need them," Hamilton said. "You don't like being in situations where you're down because when that has to happen more times than not it's not going to happen. You talk about momentum in the game. We've swung the bat well the last couple of days and a big win like that will hopefully carry the momentum over and we can keep it for a while."
