R.A. Dickey tossed eight innings, Edwin Encarnacion and Troy Tulowitzki homered and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Texas Rangers 5-0 on Friday night.
Dickey, a knuckleballer who broke into the majors with Texas in 2001, struck out six and walked one while allowing only three singles. Chad Girodo finished the three-hitter.
The Rangers had won five of their last six games since losing three in a row last week at Toronto.
Dickey (2-4) threw 74 of 111 pitches for strikes in the same stadium where 10 years ago he allowed six home runs in his only start for the Rangers after making the knuckleball his primary pitch. He perfected the pitch after that, winning 20 games and the 2012 NL Cy Young Award with the New York Mets before going to the Blue Jays the following season.
Matt Bush made his major league debut with a perfect ninth for the Rangers against the heart of Toronto's order, seven months after getting released from a 3 1/2-year prison sentence for a drunken-driving accident that seriously injured a man. It was 12 years after he was the No. 1 overall pick by his hometown San Diego Padres, when he was still a shortstop.
The Rangers signed the 30-year-old Bush to a minor league contract in December and promoted him Friday after only 12 relief appearances at Double-A Frisco. He pitched against the 2-4 hitters in the Blue Jays lineup, with several fastballs in the upper 90s.
Rangers starter Martin Perez (1-3) pitched into the seventh. He had only one inning without a baserunner, but allowed only two runs in 6 1/3 innings.
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The Blue Jays' homers came to start the eighth, in a span of three batters faced by Tom Wilhelmsen. Encarnacion led off with his seventh homer, and after Justin Smoak's double, Tulowitzki also hit his seventh to make it 5-0.
Toronto scored first in in the sixth when Tulowitzki reached on a fielder's choice with the bases loaded. That was two batters after shortstop Elvis Andrus' one-out error.
After No. 8 batter Darwin Barney singled to start the seventh and Josh Thole followed with a sacrifice, Sam Dyson took over for Perez. Barney went to third on a grounder and scored on a wild pitch -- a high, hard pitch that sent Josh Donaldson sprawling to the ground in a limbo-like position to avoid getting hit.
