ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers scored 14 runs Friday night to go along with 18 hits, three of which were home runs.
They even forced Toronto to use a position player to pitch in a 14-3 victory over the Blue Jays at a sold-out Rangers Ballpark.
And they may owe it all to a walk.
Ian Kinsler's 13-pitch walk to open the bottom of the first set the tone for the offense and Nelson Cruz and Derek Holland did the rest as Texas opened up a six-game homestand with a much-needed laugher.
"I thought it was a great at-bat, especially with the way the weather was out there," said Texas manager of Kinsler's at-bat against Brandon Morrow in 90-degree heat. "He battled, battled, battled, 13 pitches, walked. It set everything up, no doubt about it."
Kinsler's walk started an inning in which Texas sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six times, chasing Morrow (5-3) before he could get out of the inning.
A two-run single from Adrian Beltre and a three-run double from Nelson Cruz were the big blows and a sign of things to come.
Cruz, who came into the game with just 23 RBI, matched his career-high with eight by going 4 for 5. He also smashed his second grand slam of the season.
It was that kind of night for Texas, which was coming off a three-game series against Seattle in which it went a combined 4 for 19 with runners in scoring position. They had 18 chances in those situations alone Friday and had hits in seven of them.
Twice the Rangers made Toronto pitchers throw at least 40 pitches in an inning and by the time catcher Jeff Mathis finished up a scoreless eighth, the Jays had totaled 202. Mathis was the only one of the five Toronto pitchers who didn't allow a run.
Kinsler got it going.
"You don't plan on something like that. It just kind of happens," he said. "You try to get on base any way you can. It was a little frustrating because I got some pitches I maybe should have hit but I fouled them off. It was probably frustrating for both of us. It really doesn't mean much if we don't do anything."
That wasn't an issue Friday for the offense or for Holland. Holland (4-3), who pitched just five innings in his last start, went 7 1/3 Friday and set the tone by striking out the side in the first.
He may have set it even earlier than that as the left-hander, who has been sporting a mullet all season, decided to shave his head to try and change up his luck. That had little to do with his pitching as he set a season high with nine strikeouts and notched his sixth quality start of the season.
"The big thing is I was very consistent and kept the ball down," said Holland, who allowed five runs in five innings against Houston last weekend. "It was a huge improvement from the start before. My big thing is I didn't want anybody panicking or anything because to me I had one bad start."
There may have also been a little panic concerning the Texas offense, which had scored just 35 runs in the last 10 games coming into Friday.
But by the time Kinsler doubled in his second first inning at-bat to end the night for Morrow, all those concerns had been eased at least for one night. Josh Hamilton blasted his 19th homer of the season in the second inning and Yorvit Torrealba hit his first. Hamilton left the game early because of a head cold but Washington said he would be fine Saturday.
Six Texas batters had at least two hits and hopefully it's a sign of things to come.
"We certainly needed this type of game simply because we hadn't been really hitting on all cylinders," Washington said. "Tonight throughout the lineup — Moreland (3 for 5) got us a big hit. We were hitting tonight on all cylinders throughout the lineup. When we can do that with some consistency, that's when we're at our best."
