Carlos Gomez homered twice to drive in five runs and the Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 11-4 on Thursday for a split of the four-game series.
Mike Napoli and Robinson Chirinos also homered for the Rangers off Marcus Stroman (7-4).
Gomez has five homers in his six games since returning from the disabled list last week after missing a month with a right hamstring strain. His three-run shot in the third ricocheted off the left-field foul pole and put Texas up 6-0, then he added a two-run homer in the seventh off reliever Cesar Valdez.
Texas (36-36) won for the ninth time in 13 games to get back to .500 before playing 10 consecutive, and 20 of its next 26, games on the road.
The Blue Jays (35-37), who beat Texas in the AL Division Series each of the past two seasons, lost for the ninth straight time when they had a chance to reach .500 for the first time this season. They have been outscored 73-24 in those nine losses.
Martin Perez (4-6) went six innings, and all four runs he allowed came in the fifth. The lefty gave up nine hits, at least one in each inning, with three strikeouts, two walks and a hit batter.
Adrian Beltre put the Rangers ahead to stay with an RBI double in the first, and Napoli's 14th homer was a two-run shot in the second. Chirinos made it 7-0 when he homered in the fourth.
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Beltre added another double in the seventh, his 2,962nd hit, one behind Sam Crawford for 33rd all-time. He had a sacrifice fly in the eighth for his 1,587th RBI.
Stroman allowed a season-high seven runs over four innings, with five strikeouts. The right-hander has lost consecutive starts after going 6-0 in his 10 games before that.
All of Toronto's runs came with two outs in the fifth. Dwight Smith Jr. was hit by a pitch, then scored on a double by Luke Maile. Russell Martin and Kendrys Morales had RBI singles, and another run scored on an error.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rangers: RHP Jeremy Jeffress (strained lower back muscle) was put on the 10-day DL, and RHP Preston Claiborne's contract was purchased from Triple-A Round Rock. Jeffress first felt something wrong when warming up before pitching Tuesday. "The next morning I couldn't get up out of bed," he said.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Yu Darvish (6-5) pitches against the New York Yankees in his first MLB matchup against fellow Japanese starter Masahiro Tanaka (5-7).
