ARLINGTON, Texas — Yu Darvish brings extra attention to the Texas Rangers.
The offense brings fear to opposing pitchers.
Despite a second consecutive shaky outing by Darvish, the Rangers completed their first home sweep of the season Sunday by battering Toronto 12-6.
Darvish, who was bothered by a stiff back and an upset stomach, lasted just five innings but still managed to record his American League-leading seventh victory.
That was helped by an offense that left the Toronto pitching staff with stiff necks. The Rangers blew open the game with seven runs off starter Kyle Drabek (4-5) in the second inning.
Texas ended the game with 12 hits, three home runs and a complete series demolition of the Blue Jays. The Rangers, who reached 12 games over .500 for the first time this season, finished the series with 34 runs scored. The Rangers batted around twice in the series, collected 44 hits, hit 10 home runs, forced the Jays into two roster moves for pitching and led to the Jays to designate one pitcher for assignment.
"We expect to play well," said Ian Kinsler, who went 2 for 5 with a homer and 4 RBIs. "We expect that kind of offense. It's more surprising when we don't perform that way. We don't expect to score 15 runs every game or 12 runs every game but we expect to have good offensive performances and work the opposing pitcher 1 through 9. That's what we did this weekend."
The three-game sweep, the team's first at home this season, may have also helped get some of the key offensive cogs going. Michael Young had three hits Sunday, giving him two three-hit games in the series. Mike Napoli had two hits Sunday, including his first homer since April 25. Nelson Cruz had another RBI hit Sunday and finished the series with 10 RBI.
Hitting like that can make things easier when a pitcher like Darvish is struggling. Even though Darvish walked three, allowed seven hits and surrendered three runs in five innings, there was little doubt he was going to pick up win No. 7.
Texas eased those concerns in the second inning by sending 11 batters to the plate against Drabek. The run parade started with an RBI walk from Mitch Moreland but then picked up some steam with a two-run double from Kinsler, another from Elvis Andrus and a two-run homer from Adrian Beltre.
After that, it was all about Darvish hanging on for five innings and the offense continuing to tack on runs. That wouldn't be an issue as the Rangers added two more in the third inning and three in the seventh.
"One thing we pride ourselves on is being versatile," said Young, who in addition to raising his average from .267 to .282 in the series made a sparkling play at second to start a fifth-inning double play. "We know we have a lot of talent. We know it's deep. Versatile and deep is the best way to categorize our offense. Being able to score runs in different ways is something we want to continue to get better at. The last thing we want to do is rely too much on the home run."
The day wasn't completely perfect for the Rangers as Darvish struggled, and right-hander Alexi Ogando was forced to leave the game after taking a liner off his right hand. X-rays on the hand were negative.
Still, if the offense continues to play like it did against the Jays, pitchers don't have to be perfect. Texas manager Ron Washington knows the offense can't produce every game like it did against the Jays, but it's also nice to know they are going to have stretches like they did against Toronto.
"That's the type of lineup we have when we're playing well," he said. "It's up and down the whole lineup, and we can do that at times. But to me a big inning is three runs (Rangers did it five times in series). We're fortunate enough against a team we haven't played very well against to put some runs up."
